The leadership of the truckers’ associations now on strike across many parts of the country must ask why they have not been able to secure public support for their cause. There may be many factors. To begin with, there is very little sympathy for their demands pertaining to exemption from value-added taxation or for their complaints pertaining to diesel pricing. For years now truckers have been beneficiaries of the diesel subsidy offered ostensibly in the name of the poor. On VAT, they may have secured public support if the demand had been that octroi and entry tax should be eliminated once VAT is introduced. Indeed, this was the suggestion of various committees. By mixing a legitimate demand for abolition of octroi and entry tax with an illegitimate demand for exemption from VAT, the truckers have weakened their case further.The demand to permit continued operation of old trucks also does not have any public support, especially when people are beginning to accept the rule against continued use of old polluting automobiles. Rather than winning over the public, the truckers have succeeded in losing public sympathy through their blatant blackmailing. Notwithstanding the exemption given to the movement of some essential commodities, the truckers strike has hurt households, farmers, businesses and the economy as a whole. No section of society has the right to hold all others to ransom. Another reason why truckers may not be eliciting public sympathy is because both in urban areas and along the highway they have come to represent a threat to life and limb. All of this calls for serious introspection on the part of a group of business persons who have succeeded in organising themselves effectively into a trade union but failed to win public support. Industries across the country have been hit badly. Coming a few days after the confusion over VAT, this prolongation of uncertainty has hit business bottomlines and may well contribute to a lowering of the growth rate for this quarter.The government cannot absolve itself of all blame. It should have had a contingency plan in place, mobilised the railways and other public transport to break the strike at least in key agricultural and industrial centres. By failing to be pro-active the government has painted itself into a corner and may well feel compelled to negotiate its way out. This would send a wrong signal to other organised and restive sections of society. Successful strikes beget strikes. When they are nipped in the bud, further action can be discouraged. The problem for the ruling BJP seems to be that many of those who lead such strikes belong to the party’s support base. But the government must take a larger view of the problem and not be partisan in its approach.
