Bank Strike

Spurious strength Citu shuts the ATMs

FOR as generously pampered a sector as banking, the nationwide strike over two days, to buttress the demand for still higher salaries and pension, was economically disruptive enough. Yet it remains a commentary on the attitude to work that alone in India, West Bengal has incurred the dubious distinction of non-functioning Automated Teller Machines. The facts of the ATM dislocation confirm that it was almost entirely choreographed by the Citu, the trade union front of the ruling party that has become increasingly desperate to make its presence felt... whether in a funeral procession or a bank strike. Arguably, it would have been a managerial lapse if the ATMs had run out of currency. Far from it, and they didn't anywhere else in the country. But in a state traditionally concerned about union rights rather than responsibilities, Citu ensured that the ATM shutters in West Bengal were down as well. In so doing, it hasn't quite raised the pitch for its demands; the umbrella organisation of Left unions has only alienated itself from the people. Particularly inconvenienced were the kin of the sick and the dying. The contrived insensitivity towards emergencies has only served to damage the Citu's credibility and of the party in the larger perspective. The offence has been almost as serious as Congress footsoldiers holding up ambulances during the recent bandh.
Yet the withers of the netas will remain unwrung. Breathtaking in its vacuity has been the reaction of Mr Kali Ghosh, Citu's state secretary: "It is not only the relatives of patients who withdraw money; there are also those who take out cash to buy liquor." To assess the nature of the requirement doesn't come within the remit of a trade union. The statement is as inane as it could get. If, as he claimed, Citu had been able to ensure that 90 per cent of the ATMs were non-functional, it is a thoroughly spurious strength that the organisation is now trying to flaunt. It is time the bluff was called and not least by bank employees across the country. A final thought. The services sector is one where India enjoys a decisive edge over its largest Asian rival; it is time employees of this sector realised just how high the stakes are when disruptions are engineered in the manner that they were.

The above is from the editorial of the Statesman of today.
The old saying "What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow" is no longer valid, otherwise the whole of India would have been in the same mess.
I am also thankful that the CPM for once committed the historical blunder when it did not allow Jyoti Basu to become the Prime Minister. I just shudder at the thought what India would have become under him