Bharat Bandh: Protests throw life out of gear in Gujarat

Major towns and cities of Gujarat saw violence over the bandh call given by various Dalit organisations to protest the perceived dilution of the SC/ST Act.

Schools and colleges remained shut in various districts for fear of violence while cops and public transport bore the brunt of the protest in almost all the districts. No casualty was reported from anywhere in the state.  Cases of vandalism were reported from Jamnagar, Rajkot and Ahmedabad while in Surendranagar there were reports of people squatting on railway tracks preventing the movement of trains. While the service was stopped for sometime, railway service resumed soon after.

In Ahmedabad, the BRTS service was cancelled for the day, after mobs targeted public transport buses. Protesters also gheraoed the Gheekanta court preventing lawyers from attending to business.  

In state capital, Gandhinagar, Dalit protesters held a rally near the main bus station. The violence in Ahmedabad resulted in many office goers being caught unaware. Lims Chako, an engineer was caught in the violence while on the way to the office. “I was at CG road when the crowd gathered there shutting shops. I took an internal road to escape but managed to reach my office very late,” said Chako.

In many districts several Dalit activists and Congress workers symbolically burnt copies of the Supreme Court order related to the act. Several malls were also forced to shutdown in Rajkot.  In Jamnagar city, a mob tore posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi put up inside a bus depot and vandalised the depot.