For a moment, Paul (name changed), a young driver, wondered whether he had bought a pair of new footwear or something more potent.
After all, why else would the police ‘seize’ it, he was left puzzled. The drama unfolded at Karuvattekkurissu in Mulanthuruthy just before the Navakerala Sadas bus carrying the State Cabinet led by the Chief Minister was to pass through the area on its way to the session in the Piravom Assembly Constituency on Monday evening.
He and a friend were on their way back after buying the footwear when they decided to have a brief stopover at a shed where INTUC workers used to assemble. “Since the bus was about to pass through the area, we decided to sit there and watch it out of curiosity. A few INTUC workers were also there at that time. Then a police team arrived. They asked the workers whether they had any plan to stage any protest, and they replied in the negative,” Paul said.
