Following the death of 55-year-old Venugopalan Nair on Thursday, BJP called a dawn-to-dusk state-wide hartal on Friday. Venugopalan Nair self-immolated at the venue (in Thiruvananthapuram) of BJP‘s protest over the Sabarimala issue. He suffered 90 percent burn injuries and died while he was being treated at a hospital.
Following the announcement of hartal by Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), all examinations in the state from Class 1 to 10 have been deferred to December 21 and examinations conducted by Kerala University and Kerala Technological University also remain postponed. The Hartal began at 6 am and will end at 6 pm on Friday.
Shops, offices, and schools remain shut as private buses stay off roads following hartal call. Government buses are operating on some routes and services are not completely disrupted. Private vehicles continue to ply on roads and Kochi metro also continues operation.
This is the fourth bandh to be invoked by the BJP in the state since Sabarimala temple opened for the annual ‘Mandalam-Makarvillaku’ pilgrimage season in November-December. Prior to this, BJP has called a protest on Tuesday, earlier this week citing the alleged high-handedness displayed by the Kerala police during a protest by the party and its youth wing Yuva Morcha, which took place outside the Kerala Secretariat on Monday, a day before!
In the meanwhile, Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner P Prakash said that “Venugopalan Nair has not made any reference to the Sabarimala issue in his statement. He had some family issues and also some personal problems which might have forced him to take such an extreme step. I don’t think he had been part of any agitation related to Sabarimala.”
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