Another national strike has been called by several central trade unions on Thursday but this time there appears to be a difference.
The Trinamul Congress, which has abstained from strikes for nearly a decade, has so far refrained from actively opposing the bandh. Trinamul’s inactivity till now has raised the possibility of normal life being affected in the state on Thursday.
The 24-hour strike from Wednesday midnight to Thursday midnight has been called against the policies of the Narendra Modi government, including the new labour and farm laws.
A reason Trinamul is not actively seeking to foil the strike could be that the issues raised are expected to be in play during the Assembly polls.
“No force will be applied (to stop the bandh),” Trinamul spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said in response to a question on the party’s stand on the strike.
Roy said: “We endorse it morally and we will be out on the roads that day, conducting political programmes against the BJP and its government at the Centre over their anti-people policies.”
The Bengal government has so far not announced the usual penal measures on its employees if they shirk work on the day of the shutdown. But asking all employees to attend work in the middle of the pandemic would also have been impractical.
Left and Congress leaders, who have been actively campaigning in support of the November 26 strike, have also acknowledged that there had been no significant incidents of opposition from the ruling party during the campaign for Thursday’s shutdown call.
CPM MLA Sujan Chakraborty said Trinamul hadn’t been as “violent” as it used to be in the past.
Responding to a question whether the party had diluted its anti-strike stand, Trinamul said its stand on the November 26 protest was “crystal clear” and had been announced by secretary-general Partha Chatterjee and its labour arm chief Dola Sen.
“Our leader Mamata Banerjee had already protested against the issues on which the strike has been called. We don’t support strikes, but the issues do have our support,” Chatterjee had said a few days ago.
Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya said: “The country’s economy is in a deep crisis. Workers and farmers are up in arms against the Modi government. Trinamul has sensed the anger of the people and realised opposing the strike would alienate the party from the people.”
State BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said his party had evidence that Trinamul was backing the strike.
“Most of the campaign rallies brought out by the Left or the Congress are packed with men sent by Trinamul. However, none of it will have any impact. The strike will be a major failure,” he said.
Several ground-level leaders of the CPM and the Congress said they had faced less opposition in the run-up to the strike.
“So far, Trinamul leaders have not visited our houses to threaten and halt our campaign for the strike. They have also not taken out any rally to protest against the strike,” said a CPM leader in West Midnapore’s Salboni block 1.
He, however, said the real test of Trinamul’s stance would come when “we will hit the streets on Wednesday to request shopkeepers to observe a shutdown the day after (November 26)”.