West Bengal CPM Wednesday termed “illegal” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s circular for the state government employees to report to work on April 30 (when the Left Front and BJP will enforce a 12-hour bandh) or lose the day’s salary, and described his party’s call for strike “a basic constitutional right of every individual”. “No government can do this and no judiciary will support it if matters are taken to the court,” CPM state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra said. The Left Front has called for a 12-hour bandh on Thursday to protest against the incidents of violence during the just-concluded municipal polls and has got support from the BJP. The bandh coincides with another 24-hour nationwide transport bandh called by the Left-backed trade unions. Stuck between the opposition parties’ call for bandh and the state government’s subsequent challenge to it are the common public and the private institutions who have been urged to simultaneously observe and not observe the bandh. [related-post] Rabindra Bharati University, which had changed its exam dates owing to the bandh call, later withdrew the order after the state government asserted no bandh will be observed. Reflecting on this, CITU leader Shyamal Chakrabarty said the ruling party mobilized the police and other government machinery to campaign with mikes to thwart the bandh. “There is tremendous provocation from the government to create disturbance. But people will respond to the bandh call,” he said. Chakrabarty, however, added that cricket lovers who wanted to watch the IPL match at the Eden Gardens can do so in the evening. Mishra said that school authorities, shop owners and office-goers have been threatened to keep their respective places open at any cost. He said it’s a dangerous trend to deny the people their basic rights to protest. “If schoolchildren and their guardians get into any trouble while coming to schools, who will take the responsibility?” the CPM leader asked. He urged the people to “fearlessly register their protest” against an undemocratic poll. Citizens of Kolkata, however, can watch the IPL match at the Eden Gardens, which Chakrabarty confirmed as did the BJP’s reduction of the bandh duration from 12 hours to 10 hours.
