An impromptu hartal called by the Kerala Youth Congress (KYC) early on Monday to protest the murder of two of their party members in Kasargode late on Sunday caught the citizenry unawares on the first working day of the week.
The public mood was mostly one of antipathy to recurrent “flash strikes”, which invariably hit lakhs of people who commute to work.
In addition, the Kerala High Court registered a case on its own against the organisers of the strike, viewing the hartal call as a direct challenge to its recent order banning spontaneous shutdowns. It sought a detailed report from the government.
The court had mandated a seven-day advance notice for holding protests. It asked the media to desist from disseminating news about general strikes called at the drop of a hat.
The hartal hit public transport as strike supporters blocked roads, stoned vehicles, forced the closure of shops and tussled with the police across the State. Office goers, travellers, patients, white and blue collar workers and tourists felt the bite of the strike most. Television channels were replete with images of angry stranded commuters, an overwhelming number of them women.
Strike supporters stoned KSRTC buses in Kozhikode, Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargode, prompting the public utility to halt services, including long distance operations. They also forced the closure of shops in several localities. The strike disrupted school and college examinations, vexing parents and students. Thousands of students who had prepared hard for the SSLC Plus One model examination could not appear for the critical test.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called off his public engagements. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) put off its “Kerala Samrakshana Yatra” campaign for a day.
State secretary of the CPI(M) Kodiyeri Balakrishnan condemned the twin murders. He said the police should bring to light the killers. The incident had worked to the advantage of the party’s political detractors in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, he said, adding that no committed party worker would orchestrate or execute such a heinous crime.
“The killings had occurred on the very day the National Democratic Front [NDF] held a march in Kasargode. If the police accuse any CPI(M) worker of the murder, the party will expel him from its ranks,” he said. The CPI(M) could not afford to heap blame on itself for every political killing in the State. The party would conduct its enquiry, he added.
KYC president Dean Kuriakose said the organisation felt deeply pained by the ''martyrdom'' of its workers and it had called for the hartal to highlight the political murders. Mr. Kuriakose held the CPI(M)'s district leadership responsible for the crime
Kerala has borne the brunt of nine crippling general strikes, including a 48-hour shutdown by Left trade unions, since January. At least seven of the hartals were called by organisations allied to the BJP on the issue of entry of women of all ages into Sabarimala.
Police use water cannon against KYC protesters
At least one protester was injured when police used a water cannon to quell a KYC demonstration that threatened to turn violent in front of the Government Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.
Scores of KYC workers had marched to the Secretariat to protest the murders.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has equated the murder of the two Congress workers to the killing of T. P. Chandrasekharan, leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), in Kannur in 2012. He blamed the CPI(M) in Kasargode for the murders and faulted the police for not ''addressing the threat to the lives of the slain Youth Congressmen.''
