Strike paralyses banks, industry for second day

Agencies/New Delhi

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), a prominent business group, estimated losses from the two-day stoppage at Rs260bn ($4.8bn).

Eleven unions called the walkout in protest against the measures which they condemned as “anti-poor” and said were likely to cost jobs and raise prices.

While the impact of the stoppage was felt mainly in heavily unionised state-run institutions, analysts said it underscored discontent among workers.

“The government must sit down with the workers and hear them out because it cannot afford to ignore this class any more with general elections due in 2014,” Shubha Singh, a New Delhi-based political analyst and writer, said.

Leaders of two main leftist parties said they were boycotting the opening session of parliament yesterday in solidarity with the strikers.

The government’s reforms include opening the retail, insurance and aviation sectors to wider foreign investment in a bid to spur a sharply slowing economy.

They also involve raising prices of subsidised diesel and reducing the number of discounted cooking gas cylinders to trim a ballooning fiscal deficit.

The government is already under pressure over an economy growing at its weakest pace in a decade and widespread allegations of corruption.

Attendance at some government offices was thin and many education institutes were closed as teachers’ unions joined the strike. Universities cancelled exams set for yesterday.

Operations at the state-run banks were also halted.

Top carmaker Maruti, which has a history of labour unrest, declared a holiday to avert trouble while two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotorCorp gave workers a day off.

The All India Trade Union Congress said millions of workers were taking part in the strike and called on them to keep up pressure on the government, already facing a hostile opposition in parliament.

In an industrial area of New Delhi, protesters shouted slogans against the government and threw stones at factory buildings to force their shutdown.

Police arrested nearly 100 people in Noida, a sprawling suburb of Delhi where vehicles were torched and factories vandalised on Wednesday.

Assocham slammed protesters for the violence.

“Pictures showing burning of cars and other industrial property spread all over the print, electronic and social media really scares investors,” it said in a statement.

The shutdown was pretty much total in Kerala, where the communists are not in power but have influence, and in the communist-ruled Tripura.

In West Bengal, the situation was a little different. Transport services returned to normal, but the state’s industrial sector was partially hit.

A worker’s ear was chopped off, allegedly by supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress for not attending office on the first day of the strike on Wednesday. The Trinamool Congress has opposed the strike.

The financial capital of Mumbai remained peaceful with business as usual for private establishments.

Suburban trains, buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws and private vehicles ran in Mumbai as usual. Public transport ferried commuters to their daily destinations like any other day.

In Kerala, patience of the people is apparently wearing thin.

Barring a few private vehicles, the public transport remained off the road, while shops, business establishments and markets remained closed across the state.

“Restrictions will yield no result. We have no problem with the protest but they should allow people to work,” said a man.

“I have come all the way from London to close a business deal with an IT firm at the Technopark. We had a few meetings lined up with government officials. But now we are stuck due to the ongoing strike,” a businessman said.

An IT professional, who was stopped by the protesters from entering the Technopark campus, told them that she was not interested in the strike.

“I will decide which way to go, and I have decided to go to work,” she said as police kept a close watch on the protesters.