KOCHI: The UDF hartal on Monday will be a test case on whether Kochi, the state’s commercial capital, can indeed succeed in defying the shutdown call with several organisations openly calling to boycott the hartal.
With Kochi Metro, which runs services from Aluva to Maharaja’s College, expected to operate smoothly there will not be any major disruption to public transport on Monday, at least along this stretch.
The Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Better Kochi Response Group and prominent persons such as Jose Dominic of CGH Earth Group have all urged people to ‘ignore’ the hartal call. The hartal call suffered an unexpected setback when the Kerala High Court issued notice to Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on a PIL filed by a lawyer against the hartal.
Raja Sethunath, KCCI chairman, said he will urge the chamber members to defy the hartal by doing business. “I will call upon KCCI members not to participate in the hartal,” he said.
S Gopakumar, Better Kochi Response Group (BKRG) president, in a post said: “Let’s beat the hartal which has no legal validity as per the recent High Court order. Let’s open shops, offices and all institutions. Let’s take our vehicles out on the road.”
He told Express this was an experiment the BKRG was carrying out to see the public’s response. “We want to start a discussion on hartal; whether at least Kochi, the major commercial region of the state, can be excluded from hartals in the future,” he said.In a social media post, Dominic said: “Let us all ignore this hartal call and all the hartal calls. It is illegal the High Court has said (sic).”
Leading malls in the city including the Lulu Mall, however, will remain closed from 6 am till at least 5.30 pm on Monday. “We can’t afford to get into the bad books of political parties,” an officer at a leading mall confessed. “We can’t take any chances.”
Binny Immitty, Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Samithi president, said the traders’ body was against hartals. However, as a policy, the Samithi will not oppose hartal calls by the political parties. .
The traders in Kanhangad under the Merchants’ Association of Kanhangad had already announced the shops will function on the hartal day.