Opposition parties and trade unions working in tandem with shopkeepers, traders and labourers blocked railway lines and closed markets across the country on Thursday, enforcing a day long nationwide bandh, called by the BJP-led NDA and the Left to protest against the UPA government’s decision to bring FDI in multi-brand retail.
IT capital Bengaluru was one of the worst hit — along with Kolkata and Chennai — with a complete shutdown of schools, shops, offices and businesses, imposed by the state BJP government with BJP state leaders courting arrest and burning effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Dr Singh had announced a raft of reforms designed to revive India’s slowing economy, a move that sparked the furious backlash. The ‘Bharat bandh’ comes a day ahead of Dr Singh’s plans to address the nation and explain his government’s commitment to reform. It will coincide with Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee formally withdrawing support to the government, plunging UPA-2 into a working minority.
But the most curious development was the rise of UP strongman Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose iteration that his Samajwadi party will support the UPA to keep “communal” forces at bay, showed him emerge as the virtual ‘kingmaker,’ courting arrest here during Thursday’s Bharat bandh but also warning the government that the SP will not tolerate “anti-people decisions”. Clearly keeping his Third Front hopes afloat, Mr Yadav snubbed the BJP by ensuring he did not share a dais with top saffron leaders at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Thursday.
Mr Yadav, whose party has bailed out the UPA a number of times, hinted he would focus more on agitation than destabilising the Centre. “We are supporting the government only to stop communal forces. But we will not tolerate price rise,” said Mr Yadav, adding: “If the UPA government does not roll back its recent decisions immediately, we will announce a strategy on a big agitation.” The SP, with 22 Lok Sabha members, is supporting the UPA-2 government from outside.