Kali Peeli or Khali Peeli
Taxi Unions recently (21-June) went on a strike in Mumbai protesting competition from private operators like Uber and Ola accusing them, essentially, of offering lower fares and trying to drive them out of business [1] [2] [3] [4]. Now, of course, the right to strike exists to protest any perceived injustice, though, at the outset, I wonder if this strike can be justified or should garner any public sympathy, the chief complaint of which is increased competition. Isn’t that the now accepted business model the world over, that of free markets and competition, which invariably results in the best possible service offered to the consumer? The allegation made by these Taxi Unions (could also mean to include the Auto-rickshaw Unions, the meaning whereof should be clear from the context) seems to be that Uber (could also mean to include Ola and other private operators, though, from now on I will use the one word Uber to denote all such private Taxi operators) is committing some sort of a crime by offering these low fares. It reminds me of those dark days of State control and License Raj wherein an all-pervasive antipathy existed for private enterprise. Any challenge to a Govt. monopoly by private players offering better service at competitive rates, was almost seen as being anti-national.
