Bharat Bandh: 25 crore workers join strike that sees varying impact across states

New Delhi: Around 25 crore workers are claimed to have taken part in a country-wide general strike against Modi government's "anti-worker" policies with the protest leading to a complete shutdown in Kerala, sporadic violence in West Bengal and other states witnessing varying impact.

While Sangh-affiliated BMS kept itself away from the strike, the 10 central trade unions – INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC – called for the strike and said it impacted various sectors, including coal, banking, public sector enterprises and industrial sectors.

It saw Opposition parties supporting the general strike with top leaders, including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, leading a protest in Patna against the Election Commission for its Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

"The attack on the democratic rights as enshrined in Indian Constitution continues more vigorously by this ruling regime and now the attempt to de-franchise the migrant workers is being designed, beginning with Bihar as immediate case," the trade unions said in a joint statement

It said the workers participated in various protest actions like blocking road and rail traffic, as the general strike witnessed mobilisation of informal sector workers, agricultural labourers and farmers in rural India with Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and joint front of agricultural labour unions taking the lead.

“There was a ‘bandh’ like situation in many areas of the country like in Puducherry, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Goa, Meghalaya, Manipur, etc. Reports of partial bandhs were also received in many segments of Rajasthan, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, etc. There was an industrial and sectoral strike held in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat,” the statement said.

While the bandh in Kerala was complete, markets across Delhi remained open. Trade unions in Jharkhand claimed that coal, banking and other sectors were affected while reports of violence were received from various pockets of West Bengal after Left-wing activists clashed with police and TMC supporters in multiple districts, PTI reported.

Vehicular movement in different parts of Odisha including in the capital city of Bhubaneswar has been affected. Normal movement of Haryana buses was impacted at some places while commercial vehicles remained off the roads in Assam following the protest, reports said.

All India Power Engineers Federation on Wednesday said around 27 lakh power sector workers hit the road across the country to protest against privatisation and "anti-labour" policies. The Confederation of Service Associations of Arunachal Pradesh (CoSAAP) staged a peaceful dharna in Itanagar while the Confederation of All Nagaland State Services Employees Association (CANSSEA) too joined the protest.