Hey, how about us?

I just couldn't find a right tag for this post and even thought about whether this fits at Praja. Its about an ongoing strike impacting all of us at Bangalore. Agricultural produce traders are on a strike because they are not happy with government's recent move to allow private parties to buy produce directly from farmers. Wait, don't run away, I am not going to talk about geeky stuff like APMC act, organized retail, their impacts and such.

I was only thinking that all of this impacts us, the consumers the most. In terms of number of people affected, it would be consumers first, farmers next, and then last, a handful of traders. Agree? Then why are we not factored in when planning these strikes or policy matters? Why is nobody bothered about the fact that we (5 million Bangaloreans) pay inflated prices at the time of these strikes (organized by a few thousands) and most likely at all other times as well.

A leader of a trader's association was quoted as saying "we will teach state government a lesson" via this strike. Really? They may be working to wake up the sleeping consumers more than the already awake state government that is definitely justified in doing things that benefit farmers and consumers a lot more than these traders.

The protests could be justified if the focus was on working out an arrangement for those who may lose their jobs due to sarkaari yards going low on business. But going hammer and tongs after the amendment to end monopoly of government yards itself - that is a bit of stretch.

[Photo credit: Sr!v!dya at flickr]