Tension prevailed across Kerala on Monday as incidents of stone-pelting, road-blocks and forced closure of shops and offices were witnessed during the dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the Congress-led UDF, which has fallen into a crisis following the announcement of probes and cases against several of its top leaders, including former chief minister Oommen Chandy, for serious charges like corruption and rape over the infamous solar scam.
The UDF gave the call for shutdown in order to protest against the rise in prices of petro-fuels and cooking gas and the alleged anti-people policies of the BJP-led NDA Government in the Centre and the CPI(M)-headed lDF Government in Kerala. Despite the incidents of violence, the hartal evoked only partial response.
The UDF attracted widespread criticism for calling the shutdown on a day that came after two official holidays. The Kerala High Court also had come down heavily on the UDF for giving the call for hartal and sought an explanation from Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. It had also asked the Government to take strict measures to ensure security.
Chennithala sought to downplay the incidents and alleged that the CPI(M) and the BJP had tried to defeat the shutdown. Claiming that the hartal was a huge success, he said, “The Government’s effort was to defeat the shutdown by depicting minor incidents of roadblocks as violence. Has anybody been admitted to any hospital with injuries suffered in hartal-linked violenceIJ”
leftist and BJP sources termed the shutdown as a ploy of the Congress and its allies to divert public attention from the crisis it had fallen into following the announcement of Vigilance and Criminal cases against their top leaders. “There is no unanimity even within the Congress over this hartal,” said a senior CPI(M) leader.
The widespread incidents of stone-pelting, etc occurred despite the promise by Chennithala, who had presented a Bill in the State Assembly when he was Home minister to impose controls on shutdowns, that the shutdown would be entirely peaceful. However, he had said the other day that the UDF could not call the protest off as it was being held over serious issues. Incidents of stone-pelting at vehicles, especially buses of the Government-owned Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Palakkad and Kozhikode districts. The shutdown observed just two days before Diwali hit markets badly and caused problems to thousands of people.
The hartal had started off peacefully at 6.00 AM Monday but incidents of violence began to be reported within two hours.
Reports on such incidents first came in from Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Kollam districts. Major universities had postponed to later dates their examinations scheduled to be held on Monday.
Stone-pelting at KSRTC buses were reported from several places in the State capital, Thiruvananthapuram, where the police had arranged security cover for vehicles that came out on the roads.
Public transport vehicles including buses, cabs, autorikshaws and private vehicles were seen in large numbers on Thiruvananthapuram roads.
Scuffles between Congress workers and police occurred at several centres in the capital when the protestors tried to forcefully down the shutters of establishments like banks. The Congress’s district committee president himself could be seen leading those who were forcing shop-owners to down shutters.
Asked about this, State Congress president MM Hassan who had a few years ago staged a Satyagraha demanding an end to hartals and who still claims to be against shutdowns, said such an incident had not come to his attention. “If anything like that has happened stringent action will be taken after an inquiry,” he said.
Most educational institutions in the State remained closed on Monday but attendance level at Government offices was said to be moderate. The hartal did not affect the functioning of major industrial establishments and facilities like IT hubs the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark in Kochi.