Who are they kidding?

According Karunanidhi, his party leaders and his allies, most notably the Congress and Communist parties, there was no bandh yesterday in T.Nadu and life was normal!! Ask the Chennai citizens who are not die-hard DMK supporters and the answer will be totally different. I am one of them and was out yesterday and witnessed what happened.

• As far as I could see there were no buses that were plying...at least I did not witness any when I drove from Besant Nagar to T.Nagar and back.
• Many colleagues who normally travelled by bus couldn't make it on time. Many of them had to take a "share" auto, many of which luckily were in operation and proved to be the lifeline.
• I am told, the suburban train service was also in operation although I have no idea if normal services were.
• In T.Nagar, where my office is situated, the hotbed of trading activity, there were hardly any shops open!
• My colleague and I walked down Pondy Bazaar just after noon and it wore a deserted look with no restaurants open. We then drove upto New Woodlands in Mylapore for lunch.
• It was only around 4 p.m. normalcy started returning, although I still did not see buses in operation even at around 6.30 p.m.

I saw DMK party cadres in auto rickshaws waving flags, although I did not see any violence or direct intimidation. It is true that most people preferred to shut shop because they were scared of a backlash. It was definitely not, as Karunanidhi tried to make us believe, because of people's support for the cause he was supposedly fighting for!

When educated and articulate politicians like Jayanthi Natarajan and Priyaranjan Das Munshi (who, horror of horrors, compared Karunanidhi's protest to that of Mahathma Gandhi on the eve of the great man's birth anniversary!) talk irresponsibly and favourably about the DMK government after what happened yesterday, one shudders to think what kind of future India is heading towards with these charlatans at the helm!