The Bengal government said it would initiate all required steps to foil the 12-hour bandh called by the BJP on Wednesday, and condemned efforts of “some people” to create unrest throughout Tuesday.

“We have sympathy towards the students’ fraternity.... But the way some people tried to bring the city and the state to a grinding halt today (Tuesday) and the way a strike was called tomorrow (Wednesday), cannot be supported. The state government will not accept the bandh called tomorrow and we appeal to the common people not to participate in the bandh,” said Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the chief adviser to the chief minister.

He stressed that everyone wanted justice for the raped and murdered young
RG Kar doctor.

He said the bandh would hit the trade in Bengal and the state government would initiate all possible efforts to keep everything normal on Wednesday.

“Ttraders have started their business before Pujas.... These (protests on Tuesday and Wednesday’s proposed bandh) are affecting the future of a large section of people.... All the offices and commercial establishments will be kept open tomorrow,” Bandyopadhyay said. “We appeal to all not to participate in this bandh,” he said, referring to various court orders in recent times that he claimed struck down attempts at creating a stalemate in public life.

State junior finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the BJP called the bandh as it failed to create a major chaos on Tuesday’s March to Nabanna.

“The BJP wanted some bodies.... But the police acted in a restrained manner. Now, the BJP wants to create more trouble by calling a bandh tomorrow,” she said. The minister also alleged that the BJP has called the bandh to hit Bengal’s economy ahead of Durga Puja. “The BJP wants to hit this area. People of Bengal will not support the BJP.”

Bratya Basu, the state education minister, said Bombay High Court had recently made it clear that bandhs were illegal. Basu was referring to the August 23 Bombay High Court that restrained the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi and individuals from organising a statewide strike in Maharashtra on August 24 or any future date to protest against the sexual assault of two kindergarten girls at a school in Badlapur.

“The Opposition in Maharastra has accepted the request of the BJP government and withdrew a bandh call.... The BJP here should learn from the Opposition in Maharastra,” said Basu. If anyone faced trouble during the bandh on Wednesday the state government would stand by them, he said.

The CPM also opposed the BJP’s bandh call. Condemning the state government, police and the health department for allegedly trying to cover up the truth in the RG Kar case, the CPM slammed the “RSS-BJP” ploy to divert attention from the core demand of justice for the doctor.

“When people are coming together and speaking in one voice to demand justice for RG Kar, the RSS-BJP is not only trying to divert the issue but scuttle the demand to reinforce the BJP-Trinamool binary. The state government and the BJP are complicit in this effort (to divert the aim of the movement),” CPM state secretary Md Salim said, appealing to protesters to stay away from the “(bandh) provocation”. “People should be alert about those indulging in divisive politics to divert the movement. Protesters should be vigilant even in the face of the strong-armed tactics of the state government,” Salim added.