I don’t know how many of you have watched the movie The Purge, and its sequel The Purge: Anarchy. None of these two movies actually released here, and so it is not possible that it did actually make the point for the audience here. But The Purge is a movie that should be watched, at least by people at this part of the world. This is a movie that needs attention and provides some interesting thoughts.
In the movie, what they call the Purge as an event in the future United States. During the time period of 7:00 PM on March 21st to 7:00 AM on March 22nd, the twelve hours become a different time period. It is the time when all kinds of crime becomes legal. It only says that no government official of a high rank is to be harmed, and big weapons are not to be used. People stay inside their houses. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
The United States is yet to know the Purge outside the movie. But we know a lower level of the same, and it is called Harthal. Yes, Bandh has been banned, and so we have Harthal which we celebrate as Bandh and do the same things. There was a time when Harthal was not much of a big deal, but now it is Bandh. The name changes, and if Harthal is banned, may be we can call it the Purge, I guess.
So the Purge seems to allow getting rid of those negative emotions. Kerala has had a lot of that event, even as it has been less in number in the last few months. But what is more surprising is what it has to do with the common men if a party wants something. Why is it that they trouble the common man and destroy property if the common man is not their enemy? Why do they shut down the common man’s opportunity to live and earn? Why do they bother people from other states and cause trouble to them as well as the foreigners?
If they are protesting against their party members being attacked/arrested or needing the resignation of a minister from the other party, why are they not protesting at the right place where it matters? What did the common man ever do to them other than giving them votes? Is it like give us votes and we will give you Harthal in return? Don’t we have too many holidays already? Does bothering the citizens of India come naturally to them? Why the use of violence? All political parties should think about this.
The harthal against petrol and diesel price hike is even a bigger surprise. By not allowing people to travel on one day, they seems to save the fuel as well as money. Does that change anything? May be it does – there is one more holiday on the calendar. May be they should declare it as a festival and fix a day for it every month so that people can known a lot earlier and prepare much better. After all, there is some protest going on all the time. Yes, people might support if you ask them nicely, and let them make the decision after providing enough reasons, instead of declaring and forcing it yourselves.
The Purge is not so different from the Harthal even as we have not turned that evil yet. We are doing our little Purges with Harthal, as we are not that evil yet. There are stones being thrown at vechicles and tyres being punctured during most of the Harthals. There are worse incidents known to happen, but lets stop this someday and not go in the path of The Purge. After all, we are educated people and lets not waste the cent percent literacy rate that we have gained. Protests are needed, but is the Harthal a necessity? Aren’t political parties responsible to the common man too?
***All the images used on this blog post are from the Official Facebook Page of The Purge. I have recently gone through this website which shows a nice initiative against the social evil which is causing so much of loss to the state as well as the nation: http://www.saynotoharthal.com/
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The Tea Cerebrations 