KOCHI: With 'pineapple city' Vazakulam being declared a no-hartal zone by the merchant's association, Kerala is witnessing a growing public resistance against hartals, a social menace which paralyses the state on a regular basis.
This is when the legislative attempts to formulate a law like the previous UDF Government's Kerala Regulation of Hartal Bill in 2015, ended in vain. And, numerous court directives declaring bandhs illegal are barely enforced in the state.
At a frequency of more than 100 state-wide and regional hartals combined a year, the public for long are bearing the brunt of it on a regular basis where their movements are restricted, violence being inflicted upon them, and access to basic services denied.
Focussing on a more recent and dangerous trend - the growing impact of social media has resulted in a concept of 'faceless' hartal being declared online. The incident of 'Whatsapp hartal' held on April 6, led to the widespread instances of violence throughout the state.
"There is hope", says the Vazakulalam Merchant's association president Thomas Varghese. He expects similar resistance to come up from other parts of Kerala. "Everyone is sympathetic to a variety of causes for which hartals are declared, but forcing people to shut down their means of livelihood is not the right way", he said.
Raju S Nair, general convenor, 'Say No To Hartal' campaign, says the political parties, sensing the increasing resistance to state-wide hartals, have started concentrating their efforts on regional strikes.
He believes that the fight going forward will require local bodies and associations taking inspiration from places such Peringala, Ambalappady, Pulluvazhy and Vazakulam to gather public support and start saying no to hartals in their region.
S Gopakumar, president, Better Kochi Response Group (BKRG), says most of the state's political leaders are in sync with the view of reducing the number of local hartals and BKRG is in the process of reaching a consensus among various political parties for the same. Gopakumar added that stricter legal measures were required to reign in protestors interfering in the basic rights of a common man.
"Everyone has the right to protest but forcing somebody to participate in it is a blatant violation of human rights. It is high time that we wake up and say enough", says Dhanya, a resident of Kochi.