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Near-total response to Mumbai bandh call

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

Policemen and railway workers clearing obstacles placed on the tracks at the Goregoan Station in Mumbai on Wednesday. The Shiv Sena and the BJP had called for a `bandh' to protest the bomb blast at Ghatkopar on Monday. — Photo: Paul Noronha

MUMBAI JULY 30. A bandh call given by the Shiv Sena-BJP to protest the ``failure'' of the Maharashtra Government to curb the spate of bomb blasts in metropolitan Mumbai and a simultaneous protest on the same grounds by Muslim organisations met with a near-total response today. It was by and large peaceful and the Opposition said the Government was ``becoming unpopular.'' If ``it does not change its ways, we will take more rigorous steps.''

Even the Sena was surprised at the response, as when suburban trains resumed around noon after a spate of `rail rokos' earlier in the day.

In the Muslim-dominated areas, the authorities conceded, ``an appeal worked; they needed little persuasion.''

Even the Samajwadi Party, with a substantial base among the minorities, had given its own call.

The minority areas, which are aloof from the bandh calls of the Sena, today joined in but with their own separate calls.

This is the second time that these areas organised a bandh, the first one being soon after the attack on the Akshardham temple near Ahmedabad.

Mumbai has distinct minority areas, where people do not commute to work but live and work in the same localities. Bandhs are rare there.

If the Opposition was happy over the ``100 per cent success of the bandh'' which actually spilled over to Thane, Kalyan and New Mumbai — the three urban regions close to Mumbai were not given the bandh call — the authorities agreed that ``save minor instances, it was peaceful.''

The Minister of State for Home (Urban), Rajendra Darda, who supervised the law and order management, told The Hindu: ``we are pleased that everything was under control, almost peaceful.''

The bandh-sponsors stopped suburban trains, which move about seven million commuters between homes and work places in and around Mumbai for a couple of hours and in most places, asked motorists to return home and when around noon, even after the train services resumed, the city was taking a day off.

Banks, businesses and shops ceased operations. So did educational institutions. Even the seat of the Government, Mantralaya, was quiet.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, the Deputy Chief Minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, the Minister of State for Home (Rural), Krupashankar Singh, were away at Nashik to participate in the start of the `kumbhmela'.

Mr. Darda said, ``Our intent was not confrontationist. People have their right to protest but we brooked no nonsense.''

There were 15 incidents of stopping trains, eight `rasta rokos' and a dozen instances of stone-throwing.

In a suburb, when some activists tried to stop the functioning of a madrassa(Muslim seminary), police intervened and ``flushed the 15 bandh enforces out'' Mr. Darda said.

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