Everyday I'm hartallin'

No honking horns, no rush of cars, only a few people walking down the pedestrian lane. It seemed like a holiday with such silence on a busy road. It was unusual enough that the roads of Kamal Atartuk Avenue were dead empty by 9:30p.m on a weekday.
As I kept walking, an old friend who goes to the same university that I went to came up to me and said, “Hartal Mubarak.” His words left me baffled and it took me some time until I realized the wit of what he said. Jamaat-e-Islam had called a hartal the following day all across the country, which is seemingly going to be stretched to more than justa day. Keeping with their recent violent trends, there could bemassive violence around the country the night before the day of the hartal.
A lot has been said about hartal since the violence began- how it affects our GDP, how it hampers the lives of the general population and so on. This friend, though with the witty comment, suddenly gave me a whole new perspective about these strikes. Most people around the country are dead against such a way of protesting, and why wouldn't they be? It's just an announcement of violence which puts the lives of everyone in danger. But then again, there could be different standpointson hartal,based on people from different professions.That's what we are going to look into.
Businessmen, as they get affected directly, never support the idea of hartal.There could be no second sights or opinions on the exceedingly damaging impact of hartal on the state of the economy along with the crippling effects of such phenomena on our socio-political existence.“Hartal continues to be a pathetic recurrent reality for businessmen,” says Mr. ZerifAftab (29), a young entrepreneur. Undoubtedly, hartal(in our own terminology) has some serious drawbacks in the world of trading.We already knew about this part.
The service holders, on the other hand,need to attend office at any cost regardless of how unpredictable the violence on the roads get. We can never tell when it's safe out there. FarhanMasud (25), a brand executive of Bangladesh Brand Forum, has opined that travelling to office becomes easier during a hartalday because of almost no traffic. “It usually takes me about two hours to come to my office every day. Whereas, the travelling hours come down to thirty to forty minutes whenthere's a strike. It saves me a lot of time actually”
It's a day of hope and happiness for people who play the roles there on the streets. People endorsing chaos and violence in the name of the “political protest” don't necessarily belong to a particular political ideology. They are, in most cases, hired muscle power. For instance, Jewel (21), a young individual, claimed that he is paid 400 taka each day during hartal for participating in the rallies. That's quite a good amount for someone who has no other job!Breaking cars, burning buses, occasional run-and-attack with the police is just “fun” for them. But regardless, someone is willing to employ them, even if it's for a day.
What about the law enforcement? There have been witnesses on the helpless policemen playing their roles in the conflicts during hartals and the views are usually very disturbing as they belong to the service for society and are likely to throw themselves to the community. Sad but true, hartal seems to color the image of the police department in an unaccepted form.
But even in all these, one part of the population seems quite delighted about hartals- the students. Adnan, a student of a private university said, “There have been strikes for the last three days and there is another one on Thursday. There aren't enough days left for the university to announce make up classes. It's been such a dull, yet relaxing semester. Most of my classes didn't take place due to hartal and I love it. I hope it never ends.”
The students seem to enjoy hartals regardless of its effects on everyone in this country. Well, they have their own benefit in it and as long as it sails their boat, they can't really be blamed. At least, one particular group is getting benefittedthrough this never-changing political practice.

Illustration: CATNINJA