It’s Expensive!

The opposition called for a nationwide ‘bandh’ (general strike) yesterday against the centre’s decision to hike fuel prices. Normal life was disrupted in most major cities – no public transport, delayed flights and trains, closed shops and offices etc.  It was a huge inconvenience to the public and a lot of money was lost. I watched all this on the news bulletin at night on a popular news channel (NDTV) at night. The news channel was also hosting a sort of debate. There were people from the opposition party who were in favor of the bandh as well as other prominent personalities like Rahul Bajaj (MD, Bajaj Motors) who were agaisnt it. The arguments against the bandh like – it’s the common man who’s being inconvenienced, workers on daily wages lost a day’s wages and the right place to protest was the Parliament- seemed very reasonable.  The members of the opposition argued that the bandh was against rising prices of essential commodities and was necessary to wake up the ruling party. My first reaction was it’s the usual political game that the opposition and ruling party are always involved in. Maybe it was, but the fact that prices have really gone up hit me the next day.  I walked into this shop to buy half-a-litre of milk. When the shopkeeper told me it cost 17 rupees, I was taken aback. I checked the print on the milk packet to confirm the price and realised the shopkeeper wasn’t duping me. A litre of milk now costs Rs34!  Can the poor in our country really afford food anymore?I don’t know if the bandh was the right form of protesting but it definitely made me think…