A group of small businesses facing disruption and loss of revenue because of the prolonged delay in completion of Auckland City Rail Link has launched a unique Gandhigiri style of protest by taking a leaf out of the popular Bollywood comedy Lage Raho Munna Bhai.
For uninitiated, the main protagonist in that Bollywood flick takes recourse of peaceful, compassionate style of protest, by sending a bouquet of flowers and a "get well soon" card to a decision-maker who happens to be his main adversary, hoping for a change of heart, and following affirmative action.
The protagonist in that movie is shown to be inspired by Gandhi and his unique style of politics, albeit tempered with contemporary modernity, whereby sending a bouquet of flowers every day is depicted as a non-violent, compassionate form of "action" seeking an equally compassionate response.
The Albert Street Businesses also started the same style of protest on Monday, October 7, when their spokesperson and the owner of the iconic Shakespeare Bar and Eatery announced the agenda to send a bouquet of flower with a personalised message every day to the Ministers in the government, including the Prime Minister.
"This is Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, and we are introducing the unique style of protest in New Zealand by sending a bouquet to the concerned Ministers every day. These will be delivered with complimentary messages from the dying businesses," Mr Kaushal told the Indian Weekender.
"We are hoping that this action will touch their conscience and they will appreciate the grave situation and the urgency of the matter," Mr Kaushal added.
Notably, this Gandhian style of protest has come after these businesses seem to have exhausted all possible avenues of engaging with the government and the Auckland Council for getting some compensation for the businesses that alone are bearing the cost of the prolonged delay in completion of the major infrastructure project.
The project has already overrun the earliest estimates of completion-time by months, and businesses are facing the loss of revenue with each passing day without any financial-help to sustain more than the planned disruption, either from the Council or the government.
To be fair to the Council, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff had after persistent protests from the businesses, proposed to write to the Transport Minister Phil Twyford for creating a hardship fund to assists businesses sustain through the unplanned delay in construction work.
Even that proposal had already taken more than two and a half months and according to Mr Twyford, any substantial help was still months away, thus forcing the businesses towards further desperation.
It is against this backdrop that the group of Albert Street businesses had enunciated this peaceful, compassionate confrontational-action, inspired by Gandhigiri, of sending flowers to the Ministers.
Starting the Gandhigiri style of protest, the first bouquet was delivered to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday, October 8, with a message, "Where is your compassion?"
This Gandhigiri style of protest, novel to New Zealand, has garnered much interest within the media and the members of the community as evident on the social media.
Notably, a small minuscule minority on social media have found it too-confronting and "inappropriate," probably revealing the real power behind Gandhi's peaceful, yet direct-confrontationist style of politics.
Not many in this generation have an accurate understanding of Gandhi's seemingly pacifist political approach, which in it's truer sense was hardcore confrontationist, more often causing much discomfort to his political adversary.
It is not for nothing that Gandhi is called a great anarchist in his political philosophy.
Regardless, of what is in store in future for these struggling Albert Street businesses, for now, they can be credited for introducing Gandhigiri in New Zealand.