Kerala shutdown

The pesticide endosulfan is banned in Kerala. For what, then, Left Front conducted the state-wide shutdown is known only for them. One thing is very obvious. The one day hartal is surely an exit poll result indication to make aware the people the outcome of the election. The LDF need to teach a lesson those stupid Keralaites who voted against them in the election on April 13.

Even though the government had announced that state-owned buses would operate passengers arriving on long distance trains and at airports were left stranded with no public transport vehicles operating. Most of the offices, including government departments and even banks, remained closed. The state shutdown is a menace recurring so frequently in Kerala and that too with the blessing of the government. This sort of rare phenomenon would never happen elsewhere in the world.

The most interesting matter is, the hartal was called to protest against the delay by the central government in banning the pesticide, the use of which the CPM had defended in the past. A group of Leftist trade union activists had attacked protesters in Kasargode who were marching against the aerial spraying of endosulfan in the cashew plantations of the state-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala in 1999. For CPM, as it is widely accepted, wisdom occurs a little late.

A meaningful agitation by the Chief Minister of Kerala has been torpedoed by his own party bigwigs, surely a matter of group politics in CPM.
K A Solaman