23rd July, 2008 - Hartal in poverty struck Baripada

There was a time when only the opposition parties called for bandhs. The ruling party never used to call for bandhs since they would be at the receiving end during the bandh. But now a days the oppositions are sidelined and ruling parties are destroying the properties for which they had vowed to protect. Take the case of tribal dominated Mayurbhanj in Orissa where the ruling BJD-BJP observed a 12 hour dawn to dusk bandh to against the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)’s recent demand to take three districts - Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh from Orissa - and merge it with a greater Jharkhand.