116. The Street Vendors Bill and the politicians of India. P S Remesh Chandran

116

The Street Vendors Bill and the politicians of India

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Ibrahim Rifath. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Anyone travelling though Kerala will wonder at the numerous roadside shops situated on shady spots where tea, coffee, snacks, light food articles and sometimes even tapioca and chicken are available. Hot food prepared before our watching eyes are served in clean plates or plantain leaves. The taste is savoury and the prices are inconceivably low. These shops are made of a single plank of wood for placing the samovar, kettle, tea glasses and dishes, protected above from the sun and shower with three or four thatched coconut leaves. The word for shop in Kerala is Kada. So these plank shops are called Thattu Kada in Malayaalam. They can be seen in almost all places, in the coastal areas, in towns and villages, in remote hamlets, hilly tracts and on forest edges. They are run by women, children or very old men who live nearby, who are unable to undertake any other work. This is their only livelihood and sustenance. It is good milk they make tea with because their cows feed on the lavish forest green or grass fields and they are washed daily in the nearby streams. These shops are the virtues Kerala sees each morning while opening her eyes. They open very early in the morning and remain open late at night, catering to peasants, coolie labourers, and the educated and the unemployed, and all are satisfied and relished.

Article Title Image By Govaayu. Graphics: Adobe SP.

The political leaders of Kerala when they were very poor, unknown, unimportant non-entities with no money in their pockets to pay for their food, were regulars in these poor shops. They even kept accounts there. These poor sisters, kids and old men sustained and fed them when they were in pangs of hunger and when they had no money to pay. Then began the great hunt by police, accusing that they provided sitting places for criminals. Actually these shops served as loyal, vigilant watching posts against crime in each village and town. Thousands and thousands of shops were removed thus, to the satisfaction of helmeted, motor cycle-riding daylight robbers and gold chain-snatchers. Had these shops remained, every crime perpetrator’s name would have come out in the open the very next morning. Then in due course of time, thousands and thousands of these roadside shops were forcefully closed and bulldozed as part of widening of roads to facilitate high-speed travel for Million Dollar Cars of the opulently rich. Not a single voice was raised by one single shameless political party or the all-powerful three or four Youth Organizations in Kerala. We do not know where those sisters, kids and old men have gone, to life or death? No politicians and youth leaders in Kerala like to be reminded of those innocent eyes, bent bodies and faltering legs who fed them for years.

Article Title Image By Vitamin. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Gradually these unknown politicians who kept accounts in those poor Thattukadas gained popularity and rose in politics and authority as Panchayat Members, Assembly Members and some even as Parliament Members. Now they have people-funded cars to travel which won’t stop at Thattukadas, but will only at the next Luxury Star Hotel. Their loyalties change, and sitting in their sequestered offices, they order officials to bull-doze Thattukadas becuse they obstruct free car travel and are an ugly sight to see on highway sides. They are now even thinking about licensing Tea Shops only if a Master of Business Administration Graduate is employed there on their staff. The only Tea Shops and Hotels they frequent with people’s money and they are now familiar with are those with M.B.A. Graduates to take their orders. Those ungrateful drones!

Article Title Image By Rhiannon. Graphics: Adobe SP.

[In response to news article ‘The Street Vendors Bill introduced’ on 14 January 2012]