Impromptu hartals have been Kerala’s bane over several decades. Organisations of all hues have shut down the State at different times and over the years to demonstrate their political heft.
Stranded travellers, stone-throwing casualties, deserted streets, vandalised shops and private properties, damaged public transport buses, hospitals devoid of patients, empty public offices, shuttered schools and closed fuel depots are the classic vignettes of hartal life in Kerala.
Keralites tend to remain indoors for the better part of the day, at least until the initial ferocity of the strike abates. Hartals have upended the rhythms of everyday life on scores of occasions. Recurrent hartals arguably risk projecting Kerala as a politically edgy and perennially volatile State with scant regard for civic rights.
