Cong-led Bandh gets mixed response
In an apparent rebuff to the Congress-led Bharat Bandh call over the rising fuel prices, oil companies once again hiked the prices of petrol and diesel on Monday even as the shutdown met with mixed response across the country. The Bandh turned violent in some parts of the country and normal life was hit in both the Hindi heartland and in south India. Except Trinamool Congress, all major Opposition parties backed the bandh.
Normal life remained unaffected in Delhi with offices, schools and colleges opening at their regular time and vehicles plying on the roads. The protest remained largely “peaceful”. In the national Capital the day began with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and senior party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, offering prayers at Rajghat and then leading protests that led to traffic congestion in the New Delhi area. Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar and Loktantrik Janata Dal’s Sharad Yadav were also present.
Addressing a protest rally at Ramlila Grounds, Rahul questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on rising fuel prices and the Rafale fighter jet deal, in which the party has alleged a scam. Rahul said the country is being divided under Modi, and hence a united Opposition will defeat the BJP in the next elections. “People believed in him and helped form his Government,” he said.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was time for all Opposition parties to shed their differences and move forward unitedly “to save” sovereignty and democracy in the country. The Modi Government has acted against the interests of the country and has now “crossed the limits”, Singh said.
Hitting out at Modi, Sharad Pawar said the BJP-led Central Government has “failed” to deliver on its promises. RJD leader and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha said people are suffering due to the unprecedented hike in petrol and diesel prices. While in Bihar, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, the Bandh received good response and saw sporadic incidents of violence, it met with mixed response in West Bengal and Tripura. Normal life was also affected in BJP-ruled Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha.
The bandh had little impact in Congress-ruled Mizoram.
Incidents of arson, vandalism and disruption of rail and road traffic were reported from Bihar during the ‘Bharat Bandh’. In Patna, bandh supporters indulged in vandalism in the old city area, where they also disrupted movement of trains.
Private schools and a sizeable number of shopping establishments remained closed but Government offices and banks, however, functioned normally at some places. Activists of Jan Adhikar Party floated by controversial Madhepura MP Pappu Yadav vandalized a number of private vehicles.
The sub-divisional officer of Jehanabad city in Bihar, Paritosh Kumar, confirmed the death of a child, saying a resident of a village in Gaya was taking his daughter to a hospital when she collapsed. While Kumar said bandh supporters did not delay the three-wheeler carrying the child, the BJP alleged that the child died because she could not be taken to hospital in time because of bandh.
The bandh call evoked a good response in the poll-bound States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where many business establishments remained shut in their major cities and buses stayed off the roads. No untoward incident was, however, reported from any part of these States.
There was a mixed response in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State Gujarat, where a large number of educational institutions were shut while many vehicles remained off the roads.
While Uttar Pradesh remained largely unaffected, in States like Kerala and Karnataka a day-long protests were held. The dawn-to-dusk hartal, called by the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF in Kerala and Congress-headed Opposition UDF was near- total and passed off peacefully. The hartal hit normal life and both public and private transport buses and autorickshaws stayed off the roads.
Roads in Bangalore wore a deserted look as Government buses, private taxis and most autorickshaws did not ply. Businesses, shops, malls, some private enterprises remained closed. KSRTC buses kept off the road and city buses also did not ply. In Mangaluru, incidents of stone pelting at hotels and shops, which remained open, were reported.
In Tamil Nadu, normal life largely remained unaffected. However, autorickshaws affiliated to trade unions participating in the shutdown kept off the roads.
In Odisha, train services were hit as bandh supporters squatted on tracks at many places during the bandh. In Guwahati, Assam Congress president Ripun Bora along with party in-charge for the State Harish Rawat led hundreds of party workers during a rally this morning. The protestors tried to forcibly enter the State Secretariat, officials said.
Party workers in Madhya Pradesh carried out rallies and held protests outside commercial establishments and fuel pumps that were open. While the MP Congress called the shutdown successful, the ruling BJP accused the former of adopting “anarchic” ways to intimidate people to enforce the bandh.
In Bhopal, a flower shop owned by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s son Kartikey was at the centre of a protest by Congress workers. The shop, situated in Ravishankar Market, later downed shutters following the protest. A petrol pump was ransacked in the Civil Lines area of Jabalpur as well. About 110 protesters were arrested under section 151 of CrPC when they were trying to enforce the bandh while FIRs have been filed at Ujjain, Jabalpur and Katni. Almost all petrol pumps remained shut in Raipur till late afternoon and private schools remained closed for the day.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said the Congress was engaging in a “drama” by observing a nationwide shutdown over increasing fuel prices, stressing that her Government has reduced VAT on petrol and diesel to give relief to people. The BJP Government in Rajasthan, which is to go to polls later this year, had reduced value-added tax on diesel and petrol Sunday.
In Jammu, hundreds of Congress activists were detained during protests across the region though the Congress call to business community and transporters to join the nationwide strike failed to evoke much response as majority of shops and business establishments remained open and public and private transport operations were normal.