Mangalore Bundh and Common Lives - as an Eyewitness
by Walter Nandalike
Editor-in-chief
Daijiworld.com
Mangalore, Oct 8: Over the past three days, Mangalore has been burning, life is disrupted and the common man is petrified. Mangalore has not seen such days ever before.
On Oct 4, 2006 there was a bundh called for by Kannada activists for implementation of Kannada in Belgaum. On October 2, 2006 there was communal violence in Kudroli which next led to two disastrous days in the city and the suburbs.
Very few people are the cause for this bundh, for these riots, but thousands and thousands are the sufferers!
I had an 'experience' of a lifetime to be an eyewitness to this unexpected bundh when I was in Mangalore, after the great joy of a lifetime of travelling by the inaugural flight from Dubai on October 3.
This trouble is not something that had happened anytime earlier in Mangalore.
For the moment, it is hard to believe whether this is the same Mangalore where companies like ONGC are intending to invest more than Rs 40,000 crore and a place where SEZ is expected to set foot.
A couple of incidents which I witnessed made me think a lot about the life of a common person.
On October 5, some of the organizations had called for Mangalore bundh on the pretext that a certain community was hurt!.
It was around 12.30 pm. The place was Bendorewell where Daijiworld.com office is situated. The response to the call for bundh was not so much. Buses were not plying, because the owners were concerned about their safety. I do not think they supported the bundh as a cause!
An auto was parked below our office and the auto driver was waiting for passengers to carry. A group of people suddenly landed, started abusing the driver and pelting stones at the auto. Within minutes, the glass window-shields of the auto had turned into shards. The driver was scared and dumb-struck. The group disappeared but the auto driver was so numbed that he could not move for some moments.
A few people gathered around. The auto driver was in tears. Just a few words from him hit my ears as well as they touched my heart.."Sir, I depend on this auto for my daily subsistence. Yesterday I could not operate the auto due to bundh..and today if I don't work, I cannot feed my two-year-old daughter and wife. I had no option to operating the auto today. I just needed a couple of passengers to earn my today's bread!'
But..the bread had been snatched away by the miscreants, and moreover he needed to get his windshield of his auto replaced out of his pocket, since insurance will not take care of it !
What a pity...what a punishment for this poor auto driver, when he was not at any fault !
On the same day later, I witness another touching incident which in fact became the inspiration to write this story.
The movement of vehicles had come to a standstill. No city buses, no autorickshaws, or no other passenger vehicles.
A poor man was riding a rickety bicycle using only his right hand, while he was carrying a baby, about a year old, in his left hand. The baby appeared to be either sleeping or ill. He was balancing the cycle with a single hand, while also in a hurry to reach his destination, maybe a hospital or his home, where the baby needed care and attention. It was a poignant moment for anyone who witnessed it !
Most obviously, the man wanted to save his child and take it to the hospital. But there was no one to help him.
We are living in a country with a history of 59 years of Independence, but still we have to live on other people's domination and at someone else's mercy.
Whose fault is it and who has to pay for it?
Is there any human concern?
On October 5, 2006 the situation had worsened in Mangalore. The morning was horrible. Perhaps, Mangalore has rarely seen such a thing before.
The day belonged to the police force rather than the miscreants. the Mangalore police force was also joined by forces from outstation bases and other states. What I heard from my colleagues at daijiworld Mangalore was indeed heart-rending. A couple was riding a bike. The police stopped them and started beating up the woman sitting behind ! She had no time to explain her reasons, but the police were just enforcing the curfew orders. The shoot-at-sight order was more favourable to the police forces. What was more unfortunate was that as he observed that the police were beating her up, the man in the front seat fled the scene, with least concern for his pillion-rider!
Who knows if she is his wife, colleague or just a friend who wanted a lift in the absence of public transport?
But the man never stood by his partner and the police just wielded their unquestioned might.
Once again, it is the miscreants who are the cause for all this.
Mangalore is indeed burning, the communal forces are in the driver's seat of the situation. The security forces are doing their best to control the damage.
Who are the losers?
Until now, as on October 7, in the three-day-long bundh, business activity has been totally grounded; losses suffered could be in millions... for whose sake did all this have to happen?
The international flight had landed just a couple of days earlier and already made three successful trips. People are expecting Mangalore to boom. But only things that boomed were the rounds of tear-gas lobbed in some places as also the rounds of fire aimed in the air to scare the mobs.
Many people are planning to invest in Mangalore...but in this situation, will they be ready?
This communal violence has surely affected the image of Mangalore. The original image will either not be retrieved or take a long, long time to revert to the old state.
Mangalore is not like Mumbai, where people might forget the riots overnight and get back to business. People of Mangalore are sensitive; surely the prevailing situation will put a lot of thoughts into the minds and hearts of each intellectual individual who believes in decent life...
Mangalore had never been like this....let us pray it would come back its earlier, normal condition.
Mangalore Bundh - Complete Coverage with Photo Albums:
Day 4:
Day 3:
Day 2:
Day 1: