General strike becomes shutdown in Kerala; CPI(M)-Congress debate over stir

Thiruvananthapuram: The nationwide general strike by trade unions on Thursday turned out to be a near total shutdown in Kerala.

Shops and commercial establishments remained shut across the state. Apart from a few private and transport vehicles, majority of vehicles kept on strike. 

Transport buses from neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu stopped service at the border entry points.

Isolated incidents of blocking vehicles and forcing shops and commercial establishments to pull shutter were reported from various parts of the state, including  Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, Idukki and Wayanad. But no major law and order issues were reported.

Government offices recorded only thin attendance despite the state government invoking dies-non as per the Kerala Service Rules. Government employees who did not turn up for work during the day will lose one day's salary.

Meanwhile, the general strike also led to a political debate between the CPI(M) and Congress in Kerala.

CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan criticised opposition leader V D Satheesan for carrying out his ongoing Kerala yatra during the day even as pro-Congress trade union INTUC is participating in the general strike. "Will the INTUC workers who blocked vehicles as part of the strike block the vehicles taking part in the Congress leader's yatra?," Govindan asked.

Satheesan countered it by stating that the issues being raised in the trade union strike were also being raised in his yatra.

The Congress leader also said that it was high time to think why general strikes were turning out to be a total shutdown in Kerala. Indirectly accusing the CPI(M), he said that even in states like West Bengal and Tripura it was not happening even during the CPI(M) rule. 

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also flayed the total shutdown in Kerala.  He said in a social media post that while the rest of India evolved beyond such coercive disruptions, Kerala remains uniquely held hostage by this organised tyranny of the minority over the unorganised majority. "It is a lamentable irony that today’s Bharat Bandh is, in reality, merely another Kerala Bandh," he said.