As part of the nation wide ongoing protest against NRC and CAA, a Hartal was declared on December 17th in kerala by Joint Committee (Samyuktha Samara Samithi) by nearly 30 organisations and social activists.
However ‘mainstream’ political parties from both LDF and UDF came out against it, citing the Hartal would play into the hands of BJP’s divisive politics.
In a state which sees nearly 100 hartals yearly, the response of the state police has been confrontational from the get go. DGP Behra declared the hartal “illegal”,even though the HC clearly stated that every one has the right to protest while dismissing a petition asking to prevent the Hartal.
It is normal and rightful to carry out March across towns to gather support for the hartal and make people aware of the same. However the previous night itself many leaders were arrested under preventive detention and incidents of night raids on leaders of the hartal were reported. In one instance, police barged into house of female leader Gomati Idukki without even a single female police presence.
Police have been detaining protesters marching in favour of Hartal inspite of any provocation from their part. It is as if the police are deliberately creating confrontational situations paving the way for massive arrest all across Kerala.
According to V P Pramod Kumar, Deputy Director, State Police Media Centre, total number of preventive arrests across the State at 11AM is 233 (Ernakulam Rural: 55, Thrissur: 51, Idukki:35 Palakkad: 21 Kannur: 13 Kottayam : 12, Wayanad: 8)
Some photos from the hartal scenes are attached below:
