September 10, 2018
Press Release
Left Parties Salute People For The Spontaneous Upsurge Of Protests
The Left parties hail the spontaneous response of the people to the call for nation-wide protest and hartal against the unprecedented hike in the prices of petroleum products and other stiff economic burdens being heaped by this Modi government.
Reports from all across the country indicate that these protests were a big success. Some states saw a virtual shut down of all economic activities in states like Kerala (except for exempted flood rehabilitation and relief activities), Karnataka, Punjab, Bihar, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Jammu & Kashmir and in many other parts, there was widespread stoppage of normal work in protest against the economic violence unleashed by the Modi government against the people. In states like Jharkhand, Odisha, North-East and in northern and southern India, people came out to the streets displaying their anger against the Modi government’s policies. From all corners of the country, there was continuous spontaneous mass protests like rail roko, rasta roko, demonstrations, dharnas etc. The common refrain among the protestors was that if this Modi government does not reverse the policies imposing such unprecedented burdens, then the people will rally together to remove this government from office. In Tripura, the strike call evoked unprecedented and total support. In West Bengal, what was significant is that the widespread popular protest actions took place despite the strong arm opposition to the hartal by the Trinamul Congress state government.
In the capital city of Delhi, activists of the Left parties, including the General Secretaries of CPI(M) and CPI, national leaders of CPI(ML)-Liberation, SUCI and RSP staged a dharna and took out a procession on Parliament Street. Protestors were arrested and detained by the police for a couple of hours.
The Left parties, while saluting the people, call upon them to further intensify popular struggles against this government.