Flop Show: Mumbaikars happy or indifferent with today’s auto strike

Ever since Ola and Uber burst onto the ‘taxi’ scene in Mumbai, there’s been an unrelenting opposition from taxi and auto unions in the form of agitations and strikes.

At this point, we are going on a limb and assuming that by now everyone knows whats going on. Commuters are more than willing to pay those who provide service, but unions have would rather get rid of the competition first before proving any. And ya, the state government has a role to play here somewhere. But, they’re currently busy dealing with other things.

While Mumbaikars have been fortunate so far, as most strikes have ended up getting cancelled at the last minute, today was different. The leader of Mumbai’s biggest auto union, Shashank Rao, had called for a strike earlier in August and refused to take the bait offered by the state government. The union finally went ahead with the strike today as planned.

So on Wednesday morning, when we expected to see a barrage of tweets/posts of disgruntled working professionals or college students furious over the lack of transportation, social media sang a completely different tune.

While summarizing the voices of thousands of Mumbaikars may be a tad difficult, if we had to, we’d say they all echoed ‘indifference and happiness’. A stark contrast from the response a strike of this magnitude would have entailed just 3-4 years back.

Now, we’re not saying that absolutely everyone was positively thrilled or didn’t care about the strike, but indifference seemed the most resounding sentiment.

To our knowledge, here are some of the tweets that summarize the ‘sentiment’ best:

Dear Auto Union,
Pls don’t come back from strike, we don’t need your laid back services anymore. #Mumbai #Autorickshaw #Strike #OffRoads

— Khaled ® (@khalidbhai) August 31, 2016

Autos on strike in Mumbai today expect good driving experience. Ban these Autos forever. I support ola and uber cabs.

— Mahesh Sharma (@iammaheshsharma) August 31, 2016

Auto drivers are on strike more times than Dravid used to be in his playing days! #AutoStrike #Mumbai

— Prathamesh Shende (@Pratz2106) August 31, 2016

Roads looking beautiful today in mumbai due to auto strike ? #Mumbai

— Mahesh (@symahesh) August 31, 2016

Roads are so empty today. You can drive flawlessly. Hope auto-rickshaw strike continues forever. #rickshawstrike #Mumbai #MumbaiTraffic

— Chirag Nandu (@ChiragMNandu) August 31, 2016

#AutoStrike : Yesterday, decided to take auto instead of Ola. 5 of them refused. Never again!! These guys deserve to go out of business.

— Anuj Singhal (@_anujsinghal) August 31, 2016

So what do you do when you have real good competition ?
You go on a strike & ask your competition to not be good !#AutoStrike

— BatmanKiBilli (@ManaliB0103) August 31, 2016

When Autowalas realise you’re doing fine without them #AutoStrike pic.twitter.com/Xr1WH4Nkw1

— Gia kashyap (@Giasaysthat) August 31, 2016

#Mumbai
A #city where #rickshawstrike is as frequent as @imVkohli century!!!#MumbaiAutostrike

— Sunaina Nagar (@SunainaNagar) August 31, 2016

Lag Raha Hai Iss Sannate Se Kuch Aisa…
Jaise Shor In Waadiyo Me Auto Walo Se Tha..???#AutoStrike #MumbaiAutostrike

— Himalay Bhatt (@HimalayBhatt_) August 31, 2016

Auto strike in Mumbai.
Uber, Ola, BEST buses & even Kaali Peelis do brisk business. Even traffic is so smooth.

The problem is Autos !

— Atul Khatri (@one_by_two) August 31, 2016

Arrey it’s #AutoStrike today.
Now I will have to find someone else who rejects me for my choice of residence.

— Devang Pathak (@DevangPat) August 31, 2016