Surat: The anti-GST protesters in the country's largest man-made fabric (MMF) wholesale market in the city remained calm even as around 15 per cent of the textile shops opened up for business on Monday.Despite Saturday's mob frenzy at Surat Textile Market (STM) on Ring Road, shop owners in many markets located on Ring Road, Salabatpura and Sahara Darwaja opened up their shops. At the STM market, Manbhari Prints, which faced the mob frenzy on Saturday, opened up on Monday. The mobs had disappeared and there was routine movement of traders and textile workers inside the market."If few traders show courage and open up their shops, rest of the traders will follow. Today, 15 per cent shops in all the markets have opened up. Tomorrow there will be 50 per cent and the business will be normal on the third day," said owner of Manbhari Prints Narendra Saboo, who also despatched his sari orders to other states on Monday.The Ring Road, which houses most of the textile markets and remained the epicentre of the anti-GST protest during the last fortnight, wore a picture of normalcy. Those working in the shops were coming and going out of the markets as per their usual schedule, hanging out around the tea and paan shops, and ate at the restaurants and food stalls. The crowds that used to throng the few big markets, including Millennium, Raghukul, JJ air-conditioned market and at Salasar Gate were conspicuously missing. Even the sloganeering against the government and local politicians had died down. "Shutting down the shops for an indefinite period is not the way out. You have to keep the dialogue going on with the government while ensuring your business is not harmed. Today, lakhs of poor textile workers have become jobless and important business season slipping away," said Dhirubhai Shah of Fairdeal Filaments.

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