Bharat Bandh: Mixed response in MP; shops ransacked in Chhatarpur

Bhopal, Aug 21 (PTI) The ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by some organisations against a recent Supreme Court order on reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) evoked mixed response in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, with normal life remaining largely unaffected.

Protesters vandalised some shops in Chhatarpur city. In several cities and towns, shopkeepers were pressured to shut their shops.

In some places, those affiliated with the organisations that called the daylong bandh, held rallies amid police presence. Heated arguments and ruckus were also seen in a few other places.

Normal life in MP’s major cities like Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior remained largely unaffected, though protesters took out the rallies and submitted memorandum to the authorities.

Twenty-one organisations across the country had called for a Bharat Bandh on Wednesday against the recent Supreme Court order on reservation under the Scheduled Castes (SCs) category. The protesting organisations have said that it will harm the basic principles of reservation.

In Chhatarpur, protesters tried to barge into a couple of shops to enforce the bandh, eyewitnesses said.

The glass door of a shop was broken and the goods of a computer shop were also seen scattered on the road, they said.

Chhatarpur Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Akhil Rathore said some shops were ransacked by the protesters.

A group headed by tehsildar is being formed to ascertain the damage, he said, asserting that the people involved in such acts will be identified and legal steps will be taken against them.

A shopkeeper, who injured his hand, claimed that some activists of the Bhim Army started abusing him while pressing for shutting the shop.

They broke the glass door and a glass piece hit his hand, causing an injury, he said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader of Chhatarpur Ghasiram Patel blamed Bhim Army workers for the incident.

In Ujjain, protesters were seen forcing shopkeepers to close their units, triggering heated arguments in some places.

The bandh elicited mixed responses in Rewa, Singrauli, Satna, Sidhi, Burhanpur, Datia, Raisen and other cities as many organisations, including Bhim Army and BSP, took out the rallies, asking shopkeepers to shut their businesses for the day.

Talking to reporters in Morena, BSP's state president Ramakant Pippal said there is anger among the SCs and STs after the Supreme Court’s directives about sub-classification concerning reservation.

Pippal called the protest a fight against “tinkering with the Constitution” and thanked traders for keeping their establishments shut.

The BSP organised peaceful protests in all district headquarters in MP and submitted a memorandum to the administration as per the directives of party chief Mayawati, he said.

The bandh had no effect in Indore, the economic capital of Madhya Pradesh. According to locals, traffic on the city roads was similar to normal days and goods transport activities continued smoothly.

During the bandh in Indore, Bhim Army workers staged a sit-in protest in front of the District Collector's office, raising “Jai Bhim” slogans.

Vinod Yadav Ambedkar, one of the protesters, said, “We are against the idea of sub-classification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the matter of reservation. This sub-classification would be completely unfair without conducting a caste census in the country.” In Gwalior, protesters marched from Jhalkari Bai Park to Ambedkar Park and later submitted a memorandum to the district administration. Shops remained open and vehicular movement was normal in the city.

The Supreme Court on August 1 held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the SCs (Scheduled Castes), which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.

The apex court, however, made it clear that states have to make the sub-classification based on “quantifiable and demonstrable data” of backwardness and representation in government jobs and not on “whims” and as a matter of “political expediency”. PTI COR HWP ADU NR