Bihar bandh throws life out of gear

Vehicular traffic was disrupted and train services paralysed when Left organisations enforced Bihar bandh here on Thursday. School and colleges remained closed while business establishments downed their shutters in most part of the State as a precautionary measure.

More than 100 persons were apprehended while enforcing bandh in different districts. But by that time, life was thrown completely out of gear during the one-day bandh.

The worst affected district was Patna where Left parties, including CPI, CPM and CPI-ML, along with ex-MP Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), took to streets and burnt effigy of Narendra Modi Government.

Raising slogans against CAA and NRC, the demonstrators shouted, ‘Take back black bill’, ‘Hamey chahiye Azadi,’ ‘Yeh Hindustan Hamara hai’.

However, some of the protestors indulged in arson and violence when police lathi-charged those who were trying to forcibly block the railway tracks. These agitators smashed windowpanes of several private and government vehicles, enforced road blockade and created mayhem on the main thoroughfares for hours.

It all started with protestors stopping Shramjeevi Express near Patna. Bhabua Intercity-Express met the same fate. The demonstrators blocked National Highway 31 near Khagaria, Purnia and Begusarai.

Former JNU students’ union president and now a CPI leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, who joined the protestors in the State Capital, said, “This is not a battle for Hindus or Muslims. It’s a battle for Hindustan. The Modi regime is indulging in all these acts as a diversionary tactic so that no one could question the Government for job loss, growing unemployment, price rise and a slump in the economy.”