Kerala Tips

If everything goes as expected, on monday we may see some ugly scenes in Ernakulam. Traders on the M. G. road is challenging Kerala government and openly said that they would use *force* against any government action!

It may seem rather funny that a set of traders are courageous enough to challenge democratically elected government. It is obviously a direct challenge against people of Kerala. Remember, sometime back traders did a one day hartal in support of *video piracy*? My son asked me - “papa, why is there a hartal today?”. It was a tough question to answer.

I told him “suppose we rob a bank every week and using that money we make a living. One day bank sets up a security guard to prevent theft. That means we don’t have any means of income. So next day, we go to bank and organize a strike in front of the bank saying that they should withdraw the new security guard.”

Now there is another side to the courage shown by traders. Traders in Kerala are a harassed lot. Everyone from corporation employees to health inspectors demand bribe from them. Political parties even attack them if they don’t give enough donations. There are cases where traders are beaten up when they refused to give Rs. 1000 for the CPI(M) “bucket pirivu”. Normally 50% of “bucket pirivu” goes for “puttadi” as no receipts are given!

So it is no wonder traders in M.G. road are showing some real guts. They have been paying bribe to politicians and government employees for a long time. Now they are threatening to publish who those corrupt officials are! I am sure the list will be bigger than encyclopedia britannica!

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