India's South Carolina?

Today, a statewide bandh or shutdown of all economic activity was enforced in Karnataka (with the support of, and possibly at the behest of the Government of Karnataka), to protest against the Union Government’s support for Maharashtra’s case in the ongoing border dispute with Maharashtra, over the district of Belgaum.

Bandhs are illegal in India, after the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2003 banned them. It had fined two far right political parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, Rs 70 million, for organizing a bandh in Mumbai in 2003.

There was no water supply to Bangalore city, and cable operators aired only Kannada language channels. All business establishments, including my office, remained closed as a precautionary measure (especially after the riots that had followed the natural death of the Kannada movie star, Dr. Rajkumar). The cops had even made sure that the vendors at markets did not turn up.

It just beats me how these things would send a message to Maharashtra or the Union Government. It was the common Kannadiga who suffered the most. Companies like the one I work at are going to work this Saturday, so it will be business as usual. But what about the vegetable vendor, for whom it was a day without earning his livelihood?

So, wasn’t this simply bullying on the part of the Government of Karnataka? If anything, it just strengthens Maharashtra’s claim, that Belgaum should not be part of a state that terrorizes its citizens.