The culture of enforced shutdown is a common feature of third-world societies in a state of social and political flux. To be on the right side of the law, the organizers of such strikes call on the people to support their cause by voluntarily shutting down businesses and refraining from using vehicles on designated days. But since most people have no truck with partisan agendas, bandas invariably have to be enforced through coercive tactics. Thugs affiliated to one or the other political parties vandalize open shops and restrict vehicular movement through brute force to terrorize people into ‘volunteering’ for their cause. The question is: how long can this coercive tactic work? In a country like Nepal where bandas are a norm, surely, there must come a time when people say enough is enough and simply refuse to follow arbitrary orders.
For the people of Surunga bazaar in Jhapa district that defining moment came six years ago. Immediately after the Jana Andolan, the Jhapa chapter of FNCCI had persuaded all the political parties and agitating ethnic groups to sign a pledge not to call a banda in the district again. But the pledge was broken even before the ink on it had dried. Soon, the calls to close down Surunga bazaar to fulfill one vested interest or the other started coming thick and fast. Surunga residents had had it. They organized a mass meet to declare the town a ‘strike-free zone.’ What was different from similar initiatives in the rest of the country was the unprecedented unity among the locals. In the last six years, whenever someone called for a banda, the bazaar resisted the call as one; political cadres who have tried to enforce a shutdown have been chased away.
It is long past the time that the rest of the country followed Surunga’s lead. Although Surunga is only a tiny microcosm of the country, its residents have shown that coercive tactics that threaten the livelihood and wellbeing of common people can be successfully resisted. In Surunga, local level political operatives have in the past openly defied instructions from above to enforce bandas. Last year, Nepali Congress Surunga VDC committee president Netra Chimariya resigned rather than follow such an order from party leadership.
Surunga has shown that it is possible to fight coervice tactics like bandas given collective will.
The message is clear: Politicians have to heed people’s wishes if they want to stay relevant. If the banda culture is to be rooted out from the country, it is vital that political parties be given a clear message that any coercive tactic that restricts people’s freedom in any way will be resisted tooth and nail. Those who try to impose their will on others must face severe consequences, including harsh legal penalties. It is dastardly of the political parties (and their sister wings) which should be working for a common good to take part in such disruptive, antisocial activities. Given the damaging impact of banda culture on the economy, on the livelihood of daily wage earners and on people’s freedoms, time is ripe for the society to come together and resist this grave injustice and social crime—by following on the footsteps of the brave Surungabasis.
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