Another shutdown hits life in Kerala
Kerala has seen 97 shutdowns this year, despite a court ban
TRIVANDRUM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) enforced another shutdown in Kerala on Friday.
The BJP is on the warpath since the September 28 Supreme Court verdict allowing women of menstrual age at Sabarimala temple.
The provocation for their third shutdown over the issue was self-immolation by a man at their hunger strike venue before the Secretariat, the seat of government.
But in his dying declaration to the police, Venugopalan Nair, 55, had said nothing about Sabarimala or the BJP campaign, which they allege the government had manipulated.
They say it was a verdict sought by the state’s communist government violating the tradition of the Hindu shrine and the man ended his life deeply pained.
The public transport system almost came to a halt in man places since morning and shops and hotels remained closed mostly, despite the police offering support.
The state cancelled its school and other exams and job tests and interviews. Though the police had offered protection to the people’s right to free movement no help came.
BJP leaders said their strike was a big success, with thin attendance in Government ofices AND state-run Buses stationed in its garage got stoned in the BJP in Palakkad.
Shopkeepers in Kozhikode responded to the hartal by opening shops and vowed not to cooperate with any shutdown politicians call at will.
Kerala has so far this year seen 97 shutdowns, despite a court ban, 16 of them enforced by the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM, both statewide and regional.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the BJP saying it had become a “laughing stock” by enforcing a shutdown in the name of a man they were no way connected.
“The deceased had given a dying declaration to the magistrate contradicting their claims,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
BJP chief PS Sreedharan Pillai demanded a judicial probe into the immolation near his party’s venue where his predecessor CK Padmanabhan is on An indefenite Hunger strike.
Congress party chief Mullappally Ramachandran, wanted the BJP to explain why they had called the shutdown.
“The saffron party was exploiting the suicide of a man for political gains. It shows its political bankruptcy,” he said.