more-in With a host of political parties, trade unions, and organisations across the political divide supporting it, Monday’s national-level hartal against rising fuel prices is likely to be total in Kozhikode and other parts of the Malabar region. One of the rare occasions when both the ruling and Opposition coalitions supporting a hartal, it has already drawn support from across different segments of society. This is because the fuel prices, which have been rising by the day for some time, touch every facet of day-to-day life and almost every individual. Fuel prices tend to touch every sphere of economic activity. The per capita ownership of motor vehicles is one of the highest in the country, with almost every middle-class family owning at least one car and even working-class people owing motorcycles. Private buses, taxis, and autorickshaws will be off the road. The respective trade unions have offered support to the hartal. Cars and bikes However, a large number of personal vehicles such as cars and motorcycles will be on the road. Unlike in the past, during hartals these days, there are very few attacks on personal vehicles, and hence, people tend to ply them to go to work and to attend personal emergencies. The Bus Owners’ Organisation has said that all its buses will keep off the road. There are around 1,500 buses in Kozhikode district alone. Subhash Babu P.V., secretary of the district unit of the organisation, said that the sharp rise in the price of diesel over the past couple of months had eroded the revenues of the private bus industry. The sharp decline in revenues in the aftermath of the floods had been compounded by the diesel price hike, he told The Hindu. The organisation had decided to support the hartal across the State, Mr. Subhash added. All restaurants and tea shops, including the wayside ones, will remain closed. The Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association has decided to support the hartal. Moideenkutty Haji, State president of the association, told The Hindu that hotels, restaurants, bakeries, and sweet shops would remain closed. He claimed that the worst sufferer of the fuel price hike was the trading and business community, including hotels and restaurants. Since both the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League as well as the CPI(M) and other partners of the LDF have called for the hartal, all major political players have announced their support for it. This means that the countless trade unions, mass organisations, and feeder associations of parties across a wide spectrum of sectors are also joining the agitation. The hartal, apart from its apparent protest against fuel price hike, is a political statement against the Centre and the BJP.

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