As cadres watch, Buddha ally shuts down Bengal

For once, cadres of the CPM, the dominant Front partner, did not try to prevent the shutdown — they usually foil bandhs called by Opposition parties.

“This kind of a bandh is unprecedented. It was the strategy of both the party (CPM) and the government not to oppose the bandh. I personally do not support bandhs,” said Subhas Chakrabarty, West Bengal Minister for Transport and Sports.

The bandh disrupted traffic and train services, gving commuters a hard time. Several long distance trains from Howrah were cancelled while incoming trains remained stranded enroute.

There were stray incidents of violence in the city — several buses too were damaged — and 258 people were arrested from Kolkata. Raj Kanojia, IG (Law and Order), said 700 people were taken into custody in the districts.

At Writers’ Buildings, seven ministers from the other Front partners did not attend office. CPI’s Nandagopal Bhattacharya, Minister for Water Resources Development, and Marxist Forward Bloc’s Pratim Chatterjee, Minister for Fire Service, were the exception. Attendance was also poor in government offices. Home Secretary Prasad

Ranjan Ray said attendance at the Writers’ Building was around 30 per cent.

Kolkata wore a deserted look with most shops shut. The bandh, called for 24 hours, was withdrawn at 6 pm by Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh who said the shutdown had been “total and spontaneous”. Sources said the decision to withdraw the bandh was taken after a phone conversation that Ghosh had with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

CPM state secretary Biman Bose, who is also the Left Front chairman, said the bandh evoked a mixed response. He said that at some places, Bloc supporters forcibly stopped movement of people and traffic.