Mixed response to Bharat bandh call

against SC verdict on sub-classification of SCs

The daylong nationwide strike called by some Dalit and Adivasi groups against the Supreme Court's verdict on the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes affected normal life in Bihar and Jharkhand as well as tribal areas of various states.

The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.

The Chhattisgarh unit of the Congress said the government should consider the "legitimate demands" of the protesters sympathetically. However, the BJP's prominent tribal leader Faggan Singh Kulaste accused the opposition of politicising the Supreme Court's ruling on the issue. Twenty-one organisations across the country had called for the Bharat Bandh.