Congress strike advanced to August 18

TNN | Aug 11, 2015, KOLKATA: The Congress and the Left Front on Monday stepped up pressure on the Mamata Banerjee government, trying to pin it down over the repeated campus violence in the state. 

The Congress has advanced its 12-hour general strike, earlier slated for August 20, by two days to August 18. It also plans to move Calcutta high court to seek CBI probe into the killing of a 24-year-old Chhatra Parishad worker, Krishnapada Jana, on August 8. The Left Front said it would organize a two-day sit-in-demonstration on August 17 and 19, followed by a "Nabanna march" on August 27. 

On August 18, chief minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to preside over a party workers' meeting in an effort to get new voters on board, with the ensuing electoral roll revision process. 

Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury's unilateral announcement of the August 20 strike coincided with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary celebrations. While Adhir was keen to go ahead with it, senior Congress leaders reportedly prevailed on him to change the date as a "day celebrated by the Congress as Sadbhawna Diwas or Goodwill Day didn't augur well with the political antagonism". The date has now been finalized on August 18 (Tuesday). "We had earlier called the shutdown on August 20. But Congress workers will be busy with programmes to commemorate Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary. He was a beloved leader of the nation as also of the party. So we have decided to advance the date by two days," Adhir said. The next day, on August 19, the Congress plans a minority convention. 

The confusion over the strike date notwithstanding, senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan and Manas Bhuniya had a prolonged deliberation with former KMC mayor and lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya to firm up their legal deliberations on filing a PIL over the Sabang incident. According to sources, Mannan and the victim's elder brother Narayan Jana will file a plea, requesting an investigation of the CBI. The PILs are likely to express their skepticism in the state police, who they suspect might "pre-conclude the probe at the onset" and favor the ruling Trinamool Congress, six of whose student wing members have been implicated in the FIR. 

CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said, "The real culprits in the Sabang incident are being shielded. A section of the police and the administration are brazenly advocating for the ruling party as a result of which, the real culprits are going unpunished. The complaints by the victim's family are not being accepted by the police." Mishra also said the central trade unions have already declared a nationwide general strike on September 2. "We urge all the people to lend their voice in the protest," he added.