ZCZC
BFF-26
INDIA-LABOUR-STRIKE
Sporadic violence in nationwide Indian strike
KOLKATA, Jan 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Police clashed with stone-throwing
protestors in Kolkata on Tuesday, authorities said, as tens of millions of
Indians staged a 48-hour nationwide strike months before Prime Minister
Narendra Modi runs for re-election.
Unions said that some 200 million workers took part in what they called the
biggest show of force since Modi’s right-wing government took office in 2014,
accusing it of neglecting workers and farmers.
The stoppage called by 10 unions hit India’s vast black economy as well as
public services, banks and the insurance sector, with West Bengal in the east
and Kerala and Karnataka in the south the worst affected.
West Bengal’s capital Kolkata, home to five million people, saw sporadic
violence as protesters squatted on train tracks, clashed with police, set
fire to effigies of Modi and staged marches waving red flags.
“Security forces fought pitched battles with stone-throwing protesters on
roads,” West Bengal’s Transport Minister Subhendu Adhikari told AFP.
“At least 10 buses have been damaged after protesters threw stones and set
fire to vehicles,” he said. More than 100 people were arrested, police said.
“Police are detaining our people like foxes catching chickens,” Subhash
Mukherjee, president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions told AFP, adding
that the government was showing its “fascist face”.
In Kerala, thousands of protesters blocked trains, causing major delays,
while buses were off the roads, leaving thousands of commuters stuck.
Local media reports said protestors also stopped employees from reporting
to work at several places in the coastal state, which last week was hit by
violence related to women entering one of Hinduism’s holiest temples.
Similar images from neighbouring Karnataka state showed demonstrators
blocking trains and staging protests in the state capital Bangalore, India’s
major information technology hub.
In India’s financial capital Mumbai, a separate strike by 33,000 bus
company employees made for transport misery in the already chaotic
metropolis, despite an industrial court declaring the stoppage illegal.
The left-leaning unions have put forward a 12-point charter of demands
before the government aimed, they say, at reviving Asia’s third-biggest
economy and improving worker rights.
They are also unhappy about an amendment in India’s labour laws that the
government has said is aimed at bringing transparency and ameliorating
conditions.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1451 hrs