India: Opposition’s nation-wide Bandh evokes mixed response

The country-wide bandh called by the BJP, Left parties and the UPA's outside supporter the Samajwadi Party (SP) to protest diesel price hike and FDI in multi-brand retail on Thursday evoked mixed response with life being disrupted in some states and their top leaders courting arrest.

Protesters blocked trains and road traffic in many areas in Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other places and staged demonstrations. However, no major untoward incident was reported from anywhere.

While in Delhi most of the markets remained closed and traffic was disrupted at some places, the bandh evoked little response in the country's commercial hub Mumbai owing to Ganesh festivities across Maharashtra. Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have kept away from the day-long bandh due to the festival.

Meanwhile, the Indian politicians' 'stop India movement' came at a big price. The bandh, according to the industry, led to a loss of Rs 12,500 crore. The worst hit by the one-day bandh which aimed at fighting for the aam admi was the poorest of them all - the daily wage labourers for whom this meant a day without food and shelter.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Left leaders Prakash Karat and AB Bardhan courted arrest in New Delhi after holding a joint demonstration at Jantar Mantar. The leaders of the SP, four Left parties, the JD(S), the TDP and the BJD marched to Parliament Street Police Station along with supporters and courted arrest.

Besides Yadav, Karat (CPI-M) and Bardhan (CPI), other prominent leaders who courted arrested included Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) and HD Deve Gowda (JD-S). BJPs leader M Venkaiah Naidu and Shahnawaz Hussain were taken into preventive custody in Hyderabad. At Jantar Mantar, Yechury and Bardhan shared the dais with BJP's Nitin Gadkari and Murli Manohar Joshi.

Normal life was disrupted in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh but evoked partial response in other states.
Auto rickshaws plied in Delhi and buses of state-run Delhi Transport Corporation were on the roads in large numbers. At New Delhi railway station, auto drivers staged a protests and refused to carry passengers. However, most of the private schools in the capital remained closed.

The SP and the BJP workers staged demonstrations and stopped trains at a number of places in Uttar Pradesh. Protestors stopped trains in Mathura, Agra, Varanasi, Allahabad and Lucknow while the BJP workers and traders blocked the Agra-Gwalior Highway by burning tyres. Raising slogans against FDI in retail, a group of SP workers held a demonstration outside the Walmart store at Sultanpur in Lucknow. The party also protested outside Divisional Railway Manager's office in Hazratganj.

Courting arrest along with leaders from Left and other parties, the SP chief gave a veiled threat to UPA, saying his party will not "tolerate" anti-people decisions like hike in diesel prices and kept open the option of forming a Third Front.

Observing that the SP was supporting the government only to keep "communal forces" at bay, Yadav, whose party has 22 MPs in Lok Sabha, said in Delhi if the UPA government does not roll back its recent decisions immediately as per their demands, "we will announce together a strategy to hold a big agitation."

Criticising the bandh call, the government blamed the parties behind the protest for causing economic losses and made it clear that there will be no backtracking on the reforms as the country needs "massive" growth.

Senior Central ministers maintained that there was no threat to the stability of the government even if the Trinamool Congress (TMC) withdrew support tomorrow and hinted at scouting for new allies.

"We had enough friends yesterday, we have enough friends today. So, I don't think why you should doubt our stability," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the government was stable as it has the support of over 300 MPs in the 545-member Lok Sabha.

“We have support of over 300 members of Parliament who do realise that these are difficult times and know that hard decisions need to be taken,” she said, rejecting the perception that the government had been reduced to a minority. Ms. Soni said a number of leaders had made it clear that early elections were not in national interest.

Though normal life was disrupted in West Bengal due to the bandh called by CPI(M)-led Left Front and BJP, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that the situation was "normal". "I saw that the situation was normal as I was coming to Writers' Buildings," Banerjee told reporters in Kolkata.

- Asian Tribune -