By IANS,
Kolkata: Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Tuesday criticised the ruling Left Front for using “strong-arm methods” to enforce the strike against rising prices in West Bengal. The Front, however, said people had responded spontaneously to the shutdown.
“What they have done is inhuman. They committed atrocities on train passengers. They forcefully stopped trains. At the Kolkata airport, they locked the toilets to prevent passengers from using them,” Banerjee told reporters.
“What they have done at railways stations and the airport is a mockery of democracy. It is inhuman, unethical and unconstitutional,” she said.
“What we have seen today is a state-sponsored bandh which did not have the support of the people.”
Left Front chairman Biman Bose, on the other hand, claimed the strike was a success and that people had responded spontaneously to the strike call. According to him, the situation remained peaceful barring a few stray incidents.
He admitted that the strike call did not evoke the same response it got in earlier years in the tea gardens of Jalpaiguri district.
“Out of 153 tea gardens, in 50 the strike was total. Seventy four others were open, while 29 saw a partial strike,” he said.
Bose described Banerjee’s sharp criticism of the strike as “infantile”.
“There is no need to comment on such observations. Only those who rely on drama in their political journey can make such comments,” he said.
The 12-hour nationwide strike was called by 13 opposition parties to denounce the government over rising food prices.
In West Bengal, flight and train services were inoperative and vehicles kept off the roads. Two train passengers were injured in a clash with strike supporters at Pundooah station, railway officials said.
The streets in Kolkata and district towns were deserted and shops, markets and offices remained closed.