V S Achuthanandan, who had declared that his basic policy as Chief Minister was to ‘‘govern and agitate,’’ saw the first Left-sponsored strike after his taking over successfully paralyse the entire state today. Almost all shops, government and private offices and industrial establishments remained shut. Vehicles kept off the road in most districts fearing attacks, rail and air passengers got stranded with no way of reaching home. So complete was the Government endorsement of the strike that unlike in the past when the Government-owned State Road Transport Corporation used to run skeletal bus services under police protection, it made no attempt to ply any bus today — while no taxi, autorickshaw or private bus wanted to take the risk in any part of the state. Not a surprise since the state government this time didn’t given even the perfunctory strike-eve assurances of protection to those who wanted to work during the strike. Nor did it hint at any action against Government staff failing to turn up for work. A CPM state committee member insisted there was nothing wrong—unlike in Bengal, where the party sharing Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s aversion for such disruptions announced in advance that that it would hold only non-disruptive token protests. ‘‘Our Central Committee meeting at Hyderabad last week has handed clear guidelines that say each state unit is free to decide on the mode of protest according to local realities,’’ he said. “The type and levels of political consciousness and expressions differ between Kerala and Bengal,’’ he claimed. That, however, may have to remain a conjecture. “The fact that there is no organised resistance or wide condemnation of hartal shows that by and large it has societal consent,’’ and it would be “hypocritical” to believe that it was an indicator of high political consciousness. This is the finding of a study commissioned by the Institute for Enterprise Culture and Entrepreneurship Development to understand why Kerala had perhaps the country’s highest incidence of crippling strikes. Some 88 per cent of entrepreneurs responding in a World Bank-CII study recently pointed to the recurring strikes as the biggest disincentive against investing in this state, second only to threatening demands from the leaders of the political parties, trade unions and social organisations. All this despite the fact that it was the Kerala High Court that first banned forced bandhs in 1997. This made the state’s politicians rename bandhs as hartals. On May 27, 2004, the same High Court decreed that normal life should not be hit and the fundamental rights of people must be protected during hartals and general strikes in the State. It had also said that the state Government should provide adequate protection to people—even if it has to request the Centre to deploy Army or paramilitary forces to prevent “any constitutional breakdown.” Elsewhere. HYDERABAD: Opposition TDP and the CPI(M), a pre-poll ally of the ruling Congress, joined hands and held a demonstration to protest the fuel price hike. The TDP and CPI (M) held protest rallies in the city and also in several district headquarters with scores of partymen courting arrest. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu took part in a cycle rally. BHUBANESWAR: Transportation in and around major industrial areas and mining belts in Orissa was severely affected as trucks kept off the roads on Tuesday due to a 24 hour ‘chakka bandh’ called by the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) to protest the hike in diesel and petrol prices. NH 215 wore a deserted look and the industrial belts of Angul and Talcher witnessed a similar situation. The AIMTC spokespersn claimed over 80,000 trucks took part in the bandh. Auto rickshaw owners too joined the bandh in Bhubaneshwar. — PTI
