The Hindu : A fortnight of Sundays

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 16, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A fortnight of Sundays

By Inder Malhotra

Even at the risk of being accused of labouring the point one must return to the painful subject of what can only be called this country's seemingly incurable holiday mania. A huge majority of Indians has just enjoyed five consecutive holidays and is looking ahead to a run of another four after just two "working days" on Wednesday and Thursday. But anyone who thinks that those who had pushed off to the hills or the seashore would rush back to the workplace for the inconvenient 48-hour period before embarking on the second phase of holidays ought to think again. For, the resourceful and the innovative always manage to bypass the brief interregnum by the simple expedient of taking casual leave well in advance or by faxing to their bosses a medical certificate announcing a sudden bout of illness.

The French, who have contributed to the English language the lovely expression "French leave", describe the art of combining two narrowly separated stretches of holidays as "doing the bridge". They need to be told that in this kind "bridge-building", we Indians leave them flat on the doormat. No wonder, therefore, that what we are going through at present is a fortnight of Sundays and, if things go on at this pace, a whole month of Sabbaths may not be far off.

To be sure, it can, and doubtless would be, argued that the Government of the day must not be blamed if several religious holidays follow quickly on the heels of one another, thanks to the vagaries of the lunar and solar calendars. That, of course, closes government offices, public utilities, banks, etc., for nearly a week continuously but nothing can be done about it because a secular country must show equal respect to all religions. And, as it happens, every religion known to man flourishes within Indian shores.

However, the point is whether enough respect cannot be shown to all religions without necessarily having a plethora of religious holidays. Similarly, the passing of leaders and dignitaries can be mourned adequately without shutting down the entire country in honour of the dear departed. In fact, the Fifth Pay Commission, while recommending a massive increase in Government salaries, had specifically raised this issue and asked for a curtailment of holidays. Its first recommendation was implemented with alacrity; to the second no one had paid any heed. On the 50th anniversary of Stalin's death on March 5, I suddenly remembered that on the day the great dictator had died Jawaharlal Nehru had paid him an eloquent tribute after which he had adjourned both the Houses of Parliament and declared a public holiday. Later in the day, Nehru had discovered that the Soviet Union hadn't observed a holiday at all.

The USSR did shut down on the day of Stalin's funeral but for precisely two hours, just as 10 years later the U.S. had done at the time of John F. Kennedy's assassination. More than a quarter of a century after JFK passed into history, the former President, N. Sanjiva Reddy, died in retirement. A public holiday was immediately ordered as in all such cases. But something weird happened a month later when Parliament met. It immediately adjourned as a mark of respect to Reddy and some others who had passed away during the inter-session period. The State Assemblies meeting even later eagerly adopted the Parliamentary precedent. It has since become the normal practice.

In 1990, the then Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, used the august rostrum at the Red Fort to declare the 100th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar, falling that year, as a public holiday. Since then, every successive Government has declared Ambedkar's birthday as a holiday every year under the quaintly named Negotiable Instruments Act. Why not dispense with the annual exertion and add this holiday, too, to the permanent list, especially now that Uttar Pradesh's Dalit Chief Minister, Mayawati, has become BJP's "majboori'' (compulsion)? While introducing the five-day week in this country 17 years ago, Rajiv Gandhi had promised to revise the pattern of paid holidays in the Government as well as the private sector. He never did. His successors also haven't bothered.

Consequently, the country is now beset with a situation in which everyone on any payroll enjoys 104 holidays because of the two-day weekend, 30 days' privilege leave (unheard of outside the Indian subcontinent), 26 national and religious holidays, 12 days' casual leave and at least 30 days' sick leave. This makes a total of 202 holidays in a year, not counting those that are declared at the drop of a hat.

Given this kind of work ethics, gravely eroded further by all too frequent bandhs, industrial strikes, "rasta rokos" and so on, how on earth can the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's undoubtedly sincere craving for an eight per cent rate of growth be anything but a pipe dream?

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A fortnight of Sundays