While the 24-hour industrial strike on Wednesday brought the Left-ruled West Bengal and Kerala to a standstill, disrupting air and rail traffic, it evoked little response in Tamil Nadu.
Acquiring the notoriety of a state observing frequent bandhs, the Left-ruled Kerala was shutdown on Wednesday, the 80th time in the last six months!
It does not make any difference in Kerala whether it is a general strike or a hartal. The effect is the same. They paralyse normal life. And the ordinary Malayali seems to have reconciled to their far-too-frequent occurrence.
Meanwhile, all public transport services in Chennai and other parts of the state operated as usual while industrial establishments reported normal attendance.
Four private airlines cancelled their flights from Chennai to Kolkata, but flights to all other destinations operated as usual.
Millions of workers affiliated to the Left parties-controlled Centre for Indian Trade Unions struck work today in what is termed as the 'largest ever strike organised by the trade union movement'.
According to sources about 10 crore employees from bank federations, insurance, State and Central government employees' unions, railways, defence, telecom, airlines and airports unions are participating in the agitation.
Eight major trade unions, including All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Centre for Industrial Trade Union (CITU) is observing the strike across the country to protest against the government's "anti-labour" and "neo-liberal" policies.
Kerala, the 'hartal state'
Documentation of the hartal and strikes shows that with Wednesday's all-India strike called by the Left trade unions, the number of shutdowns enforced in the state in the last six months has touched 80. Of course, some of them were local, some district-level and a few statewide.
Text: PTI
Image: Members of the Communist Party of India-Marxist shout slogans as they stage a protest during a nation-wide strike | Photograph: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images
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