Shashi Tharoor comes out against forced strike

Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, has opposed the 24-hour national strike called by the Joint Trade Union Committee against the central policies.

Tharoor said he supports the right to protest, but not the right to disrupt. In a Facebook post on Thursday, Tharoor said it is ironic that today’s “Bharat Bandh” is actually just another “Kerala Bandh.”

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While other parts of India have grown beyond such forced disruptions, Kerala alone is still held hostage by this atrocity of an organised minority on an unorganised majority, he wrote on Facebook.

He further said, “By clinging to such old-fashioned ‘sportsmanlike’ methods, we are not at all suitable for the youth and entrepreneurs of our state.”

“A state to a standstill by disrupting daily life, trade and transport is an encroachment on the freedom of the common man. Kerala’s reputation has already been tarnished by the intense unionism that has spread from inside the factories to our streets and homes. We cannot become a modern, investor-friendly destination by pursuing outdated forms of struggle that the world and the rest of India have rejected,” Tharoor wrote on Facebook.

Full text of Tharoor’s Facebook post

“It is a sad paradox that today’s ‘Bharat Bandh’ has actually become just another ‘Kerala Bandh’. While other parts of India have grown beyond such forced disruptions, Kerala alone remains captive to this violence by an organised minority on an unorganised majority.

My position has been clear since I entered politics: I support the right to protest, but not the right to disrupt. No Indian has a constitutional right to obstruct another’s free movement.

We have driven industries out of our country through our intense union activities; now, by clinging to such old-fashioned ‘force majeure’ methods of imprisoning citizens in their homes and forcing shopkeepers to close their shutters, we are ensuring that our state is not at all conducive for youth and entrepreneurs. It is time to break this self-destructive habit. We can only replace it with constructive dissent.

I have long argued that the right to strike does not include the right to force others to strike, even when my own party is involved. Bringing a state to a standstill by disrupting daily life, trade, and transport is an invasion of the common man’s freedom.

Kerala’s reputation has already been tarnished by the intense unionism that has spread from inside the factories to our streets and homes. We cannot become a modern, investor-friendly destination by pursuing outdated forms of struggle that the rest of the world and India have rejected.

We can respect the right to disagree, but we can also strongly defend the right of others to disagree with us, and the freedom to work and travel. Protest should be a moral declaration, not a physical blockade,” Tharoor wrote on Facebook.

The 24-hour nationwide general strike called by trade unions on Thursday against the central government’s policies brought life to a standstill in Kerala, with public transport largely crippled and educational institutions and banks remaining closed. Government offices saw limited employee footfall, while shops and markets remained closed.