Schools, shops and government offices were shut in some Indian states on Thursday as protesters blocked road and rail traffic as part of a one-day nationwide strike against sweeping economic reforms announced by the government last week.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), joined by smaller parties from both the political left and right, called for the strike to protest against a 14 per cent hike in heavily subsidised diesel prices, and a government decision that opens the door to foreign supermarket chains to invest in India.
The measures, part of a package of big-bang economic reforms aimed at boosting a sharply slowing economy, have triggered a political firestorm. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s biggest ally pulled out of his shaky coalition on Tuesday, raising the risk of an early election.
Bangalore, India’s IT and outsourcing hub, was hard hit by the strike, but in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, banks and offices were open as usual. In New Delhi, shops were shut in BJP constituencies and there were fewer cars on the road, but the central business district was untouched.
Across the country, morning commuters were left stranded at train stations and bus-stops as protesters squatted on railway tracks and laid siege to some bus depots. Supporters of the right-wing Hindu nationalist BJP and other opposition parties also blocked some roads with burning tyres.
“If we don’t protest now, the central government will eliminate the poor and middle-class families,” said Santi Barik as she protested in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Odisha.