The CPIM had called a 48-hour bandh by trade unions across the country, While several incidents of harassment and delaying of public transport services have been reported across the country, there have been many incidents where the leftists have resorted to violence to intimidate and attack people.
In West Bengal, a car ferrying schoolchildren to a kindergarten in Amherst Street in Rajabazar area was viciously attacked by communists. As per reports, yesterday morning a carpool taking about 10 children to a school in Rajabazar area was attacked by the communist goons. The driver of the vehicle has told police that people ‘carrying CPIM flags’ stopped the vehicle and smashed its windshields with sticks and stones. Two of the children were injured in the attack. They were later taken to Kolkata Medical College and Hospital.
Reports have stated that the communist goons kept attacking the car despite locals in the vicinity trying to stop them telling there are children inside. The leftists had smashed the windows in the car and finally, after police arrived, the children were rescued following a scuffle with the protesters.
The Kolkata police have detained 24 persons in connection with the incident. In another such case of hooliganism in Howrah, a school bus was pelted with stones where a driver received injuries, Police had to intervene to rescue the schoolchildren in the buses. A country-made bomb was reportedly seized from the train tracks in the Sealdah-Bongaon line near Ashoknagar.
The TMC government had opposed the bandh call by the leftists and had called the strike a complete failure. Government services and public transport was largely unaffected in the state.
TMC leader Partha Chatterjee stated that though they are the staunch rivals of the BJP politically, they will not allow the bandh in West Bengal as the people have rejected the ‘shutdown culture’. In Karnataka too, it was reported that the second day of the bandh saw almost no effect and offices and transport services functioned normally.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had Tweeted yesterday calling the bandh as a ‘symbolic’ measure by the communist parties to stay relevant and not be wiped out from Indian politics.
Are there any real issues before Left affiliated Trade Unions for organising a Bharat Bandh on the 8th & 9th January, 2019 or is it a part of their strategy to organise a symbolic unrest to ensure that they are not wiped out from the political map of India.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) January 9, 2019
As many as 10 left and Congress backed trade unions had supported the bandh and political parties like the RJD, SP, BJD had also lent support to the bandh call.
