This is a bandh sarkaar: Devendra Fadnavis

Members of the Shiv Sena protest near Shiv Sena Bhavan, Dadar on Monday during the bandh. Pic/Shadab Khan

Commuters found themselves stuck without conveyance in most areas of the city with BEST deciding to stay off the roads for most part of the day. Eleven BEST buses were vandalised earlier in the day. Cabs and autos, too, plied cautiously, with only trains operating without a hitch. Shopkeepers were angry at being forced to stay closed in a festive week. Most schools switched to online mode for the day as some teachers found it hard to get to school. In Thane, auto and cab drivers said Shiv Sena workers were quite aggressive, with protesters beating up those who were working.

Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis alleged state-sponsored excesses during the statewide bandh on Monday. He said the police, state GST department and BEST administration were used to enforce the agitation on the general public, traders and transporters. He urged the Bombay High Court to take suo motu cognizance of the bandh because it amounted to contempt of court. The court had barred such agitations and even penalised the Shiv Sena for breaching the verdict.

"The incident in Lakhimpur Kheri cannot be supported and it is being probed under the Supreme Court's supervision. But did anyone call for a bandh in Uttar Pradesh when the people in this government had killed the farmers in firing at Maval? What morality do these people have? This is an imposter government. The general public did not want to support the bandh, but the government used the police and state GST department to shut the shops, used the BEST administration to stop the bus transport in the city. Attacking the buses and then calling off the operation was a part of their plan," said Fadnavis at a press conference, demanding a relief package for the state farmers, who have been hit by the excessive rains and storms.

"In fact, this is a bandh sarkaar. It has been shutting things since it came to power. It closed good welfare schemes and it shut the state in the name of the pandemic. And when the economy started rolling, the government called for a bandh and enforced it using its power. The Supreme Court and High Court have banned such bandhs. We demand the high court take suo motu cognizance of the contempt. The court had penalized the Shiv Sena for calling such a bandh in the past," said the former CM, adding that the court should recover the cost of damages to public and private property from the individuals who run the MVA government.

He wondered how the Cabinet could pass a resolution to shut the state that the ministers and the CM are supposed to run. "This is a blatant misuse of power and violation of the constitution."

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's Sandeep Deshpande questioned the Sena and NCP's intentions. "Where were the Sena MPs and Sharad Pawar when the Farms Acts were passed in the Parliament? Did the Samajwadi Party and BSP call for a bandh in Uttar Pradesh when something happened in Maharashtra?" he asked.
Deshpande said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had ensured that his personal relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi are not affected, but ensured that the people are troubled due to politics. "The police used force to shut shops in Dadar instead of protecting them from the protesters. Isn't it the CM, administration and police's job to protect people?" he further asked.

Claiming the bandh was a great success, the MVA partners reiterated the charges of regression of the farmers and demanded justice for the killed farmers. The Congress leaders sat on a silent protest in front of Malabar Hill's Raj Bhavan and a delegation of senior leaders handed a memorandum to the office of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari who was not in the city.

State Congress president Nana Patole said the opposition leader should try to convince the Centre to give Maharashtra more money to address the farmers' problems. "The public and traders supported the bandh on their own. The Congress will continue to fight for the farmers," he said, adding that it was due to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi's sustained fight that the UP government had to arrest the son of the union minister.