A political leader and Rajya Sabha member from Mumbai has proudly announced that his party can still shut down Mumbai in ten minutes.
One wonders what exactly is being boasted about here. Mumbai is not a toy city, nor a private estate. It is a living, breathing organism of millions who wake up before dawn, hang out of trains like human punctuation marks, run shops the size of cupboards, treat patients, teach children, cook food, deliver parcels, clean streets, and keep the country’s economic heart beating. Threatening to shut this down is not a display of strength. It is a confession of intent.
The primary responsibility of any government or anyone aspiring to govern is peace, security, and stability. Those are not optional extras. They are the foundation. When leaders speak casually about paralysing a city, they are not talking about protest. They are talking about coercion.
Protest is when you raise your voice. Bullying is when you silence everyone else’s.
Till a few years ago, bandhs and strikes were treated almost like festivals. Shops were forced shut, buses were burnt to prove a point, students stayed home not out of conviction but fear, and daily wage earners paid the price for someone else’s politics. Then the courts stepped in and said IIf you call for a shutdown, you are responsible for the losses and damage. Suddenly, the romance of shutting down cities faded. Amazing how legality sobers revolutionary zeal.
Yet here we are again, nostalgia dripping from political speeches. As if shutting down Mumbai were a badge of honour, like an old war medal taken out of a dusty cupboard.
But this is not the seventies or eighties. This is not a time when strong arm tactics can be romanticised. In a democracy, strength is shown by persuasion, not paralysis.
Let us be clear. Protest is a democratic right. Peaceful protest. Voluntary protest. The moment shops are forced to close, schools intimidated, transport blocked, and citizens frightened into compliance, democracy has left the building. What remains is muscle flexing masquerading as mass support.
There is also a moral question. Who suffers when a city shuts down? Not the politician making speeches from a safe podium. It is the nurse who cannot reach the hospital. The street vendor who loses a day’s income. The child whose exam is postponed. The small businessman who already runs on thin margins. Shutting down a city is easy when you do not have to live with the consequences.
Is it not time such statements were frowned upon instead of applauded by loyal crowds?
Words matter. When leaders speak of disruption as power, they normalise chaos.
Mumbai does not need to be shut down to prove a point. It needs to be kept open, functioning, and safe.
In a democracy, the real achievement is not how fast you can close a city, but how wisely you can keep it running….!