Fuel protests cripple life in key Indian cities

Mumbai: A day-long nationwide shutdown called by India's opposition parties to protest a fuel price rise brought the country's major cities to a virtual standstill.

Violent incidents were reported in several states where activists of the opposition parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, and leftist organisations threw stones at passing vehicles, burnt buses, stopped trains, forcefully shut down shops and even thrashed commuters.

In most cities, the transport system was targeted forcing taxis and autorickshaws to stay off the road leaving the common man in the lurch.

Air travel in Mumbai, Kolkata, Nagpur and other cities was severely affected.

There was poor attendance at offices and industrial units while schools and colleges decided to close for the day. Security personnel were out in full strength across major cities and hundreds of supporters of the protest were taken into preventive custody.

The federal government of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance swooped on opposition leaders in Delhi as well as in other cities, particularly Mumbai, the financial capital of the nation.

Opposition leaders called the shutdown or ‘Bharat Bandh' an "unprecedented success". The unity demonstrated by the opposition parties is a reality, said a triumphant Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav at a press conference in Delhi with his BJP counterpart Nitin Gadkari.

The success of the shutdown could pose a challenge to the Manmohan Singh government over failure to check food prices. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday there was no question of rolling back the fuel price.

Do you think strikes like this serve any purpose? Is it worth the money that India lost? How do you think this issue could be handled?