NEW DELHI, 27 September — Calls for a nationwide shutdown by hard-line Hindu parties to protest Tuesday’s terrorist attack on a temple in the western state of Gujarat went largely unheeded across most of India yesterday.
Except in Gujarat, Bombay and parts of Orissa, people in most parts of India turned their backs to the call from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena to protest the killing of 32 people in the attack on the Swaminarayan temple of Gandhinagar.
A large number of people interviewed across the country said that while they wanted terrorism to be stamped out, they did not feel that such shutdowns were the answer.
People remained indoors in Gujarat fearing another communal flare-up in the state still trying to recover from three months of sectarian violence this year.
In Delhi’s Panchkuian market, some shopkeepers lowered their shutters to avoid damage to property by activists enforcing the strike. In other areas of the capital, with VHP hardly around, business went on as usual. There was hardly any shutdown in most of the market places. Schools and colleges as well as government offices remained open and traffic plied as usual.
In the Uttar Pradesh cities of Kanpur and Lucknow, VHP and Bajrang Dal workers pelted vehicles with stones, breaking windshields, and coerced traders into shutting their shops in a desperate bid to make their protest a success.
The strike had virtually no impact in Bihar, where the bustle of everyday life was visible on the streets.
"Why should I close my shop? I am not a supporter of the VHP. They are playing politics on corpses," Sachidanand Yadav, the owner of a sweet store in Bihar’s capital Patna, said.
The strike call evoked a partial response in the northeast, where educational institutions were closed and few motorists were spotted on the streets. While attendance in government and private offices was thin, shops and businesses opened as usual.
"We condemn the terror attack in Gujarat, but to call a general strike to protest the killings was not justified as Assam and other economically backward northeastern states incur heavy losses," said Apurba Bhattacharyya, president of the radical Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chattra Parishad.
The strike created barely a ripple in West Bengal, where shops, offices, schools and colleges stayed open while trains, buses and flights operated normally. Some strikers briefly disrupted local train service at Calcutta’s Sealdah station. Police moved in swiftly, arresting six of them.
All major political parties in West Bengal, barring the Bharatiya Janata Party, on Wednesday rejected the strike call.
Reports from most of the state’s 19 districts said the strike did not evoke any response. But the shutdown disrupted life in the hill district of Darjeeling, where offices, schools, shops and some tea gardens remained closed.
Security forces were on maximum alert in Calcutta and other major towns of the state. Police and special commandos were guarding vital installations like bridges, railway tracks, telecommunication installations besides important monuments and offices.
Places of worship and other public places were also guarded. Vigil along the international border with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan had been beefed up.
The strike did have an impact in neighboring Orissa, where shops and businesses remained closed and few vehicles plied on the roads.
Cities like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Berhampur were affected, though hospitals and offices were kept open. VHP workers also blocked roads in Bhubaneswar.
In Karnataka’s capital Bangalore too shops, commercial establishments and educational institutions remained shut. Life continued as usual in Tamil Nadu and Goa.
The shutdown crippled normal life in the southern Kerala, but no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state.
Passengers were stranded at the three airports in the state as well as the railway stations. Special armed forces with advanced weapons were deployed at the airports fearing terrorist strikes, airport authorities said.
Buses, taxis and other modes of public transport kept off the roads, shops downed shutters and schools and colleges were given holiday. Attendance at the government offices was thin.
VHP’s international general secretary Pravin Togadiya, however, described the daylong strike as a "great success."
Addressing a press conference in Ahmedabad, Togadiya asked political parties "to learn the right lessons from this mass awakening."
Experts and analysts in India largely view the Tuesday’s attack as an aftermath of the communal violence that affected Gujarat for three months from February this year.
