Violence reported in states governed by opposition parties

Mumbai: Train services were thrown out of gear, flights were cancelled, road traffic was obstructed and shops, offices and educational institutions remained closed across the country as a shutdown called by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Left organisations to protest against the hike in fuel prices brought normal life to a standstill.

Reports of violence poured in from across the country with mobs of overzealous political activists getting out of control. The day-long strike threw normal life completely out of gear in the BJP-ruled states of Gujarat, Karnataka and Punjab. However, the Congress-ruled state of Maharashtra and its capital Mumbai were the worst-hit with incidents of stone-pelting against vehicles and obstruction of roads and trains being widely reported.

Metro commuters in Delhi were also hard hit as BJP activists milled at Rajiv Chowk, Karol Bagh, Tilak Nagar, Tagore Gardens and other stations disrupting services and shouting slogans.

IT firms stay closed

In the IT hub of Bangalore, leading companies, including Infosys, remained shut. A group of BJP activists staged a protest at a prominent city intersection and courted arrest.

In Left-ruled West Bengal, private airlines cancelled all flights out of the city from 6am to 6 pm while suburban and long-distance trains were suspended as demonstrations were held at 16 stations.

Patna, the capital of Bihar state, witnessed violent protests from early morning as BJP women activists blocked rail traffic whilst party activists burnt vehicles that ventured on to roads and took their ire out on hapless commuters.

Ugly scenes were witnessed in Gujarat state as well with BJP demonstrators ransacking shops in Surat and forcing businesses to down shutters.

The sick and the infirm related tales of woe. In Gujarat's Rajkot, a woman complained how she along with her daughter, who had been discharged from a hospital after undergoing surgery, was asked to get down from a bus headed for their hometown of Limdi. She was worried how she would take her daughter home.

A number of Samajwadi Party workers were injured in Uttar Pradesh state's capital of Lucknow when police baton-charged them as they swept past barricades and marched towards the governor's official residence.

The strike also affected Andhra Pradesh where 1,200 public buses were stopped on their routes and four were vandalised.

In the national capital, top BJP leaders including party president Nitin Gadkari, former party president Rajnath Singh and Sharad Yadav (leader of the Janata Dal-United party) were arrested at a protest rally in the Chandni Chowk area.

In a speech, Gadkari claimed that the basic cost of petrol was only Rs16.50 per litre but it was being sold for Rs53 (Dh4.1) per litre after taxation and that the prices were much lower in other countries. "Unfortunately, the prime minister and the government are concerned about oil companies, not the common man," he said.

Countering the BJP's accusations, Congress party spokesman Manu Singhvi condemned the protests as anti-people. The government's stand may not go down well with the people as it is a fact that ordinary citizens, especially the poor, are finding it hard to cope with high food prices. BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who called the strike "an unprecedented success" said in Lucknow that it was high time the government "realised the misery of the common man".