The BJP-sponsored dawn-to-dusk shutdown in Kerala on Tuesday demanding the ouster of bar bribe scam-accused Finance Minister KM Mani, resignation of the Congress-led UDF Government and mid-term Assembly polls evoked total response. The State-wide hartal passed off peacefully with no untoward incidents.
However, normal life was thrown out of gear as public transport vehicles kept off the roads and trade and commercial establishments remained closed across the State. Attendance at Government offices was skeletal and educational institutions took a forced holiday. However, essential services like hospitals and milk supply had been exempted from the shutdown.
Several panchayats in the State had also been exempted from the hartal considering religious festivals and other such things. Five panchayats in Kottayam district did not observe the hartal because of the festival at a church in Kuruvilangad. The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation held bus services to these areas.
The BJP took out demonstrations to protest against the alleged bid of the Government to protect Finance Minister Mani, accused of taking crores of rupees as bribe from bar owners. “The Government should not think the BJP’s protests would end with this hartal,” said State party president V Muraleedharan while inaugurating a march to the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. “Chief Minister Oommen Chandy should not hope to quell our protest by striking a secret pact with the CPI(M),” he said.
Shops and commercial establishments remained closed for the fifth consecutive day, Tuesday, in the Pala constituency represented by Mani. The UDF had observed a hartal in Pala last Friday while the Opposition lDF sponsored a shutdown there on Saturday. After the holidays of Sunday and Republic Day (Monday), Tuesday also witnessed a shutdown sponsored by the BJP. BJP leaders said that the party’s protests over the bar scam would continue in the coming days. The party’s efforts, according to observers, is to cash in on the scam politically by exposing the alleged secret understanding between the Congress-led front and the CPI(M) which had reportedly led to the failure of the protests over the infamous solar scam in 2013.