New Delhi [India], July 9 (ANI): Around 10 Central Trade Unions associated with left-aligned parties, representing over 25 crore Indian workers, along with INDIA bloc parties participated in the Bharat Bandh carried out across the country on Wednesday, demanding a roll back of the new labour codes, bringing back the Old Pension Scheme urging the Centre to ensure that labour rights are protected.

Scores of people walked the streets across the country, carrying their trade union flags and slogans, and presented their demands through a 17-point charter. The trade unions have accused the Centre of diluting workers' rights, alleging that the central government is pushing economic reforms without considering the impact on workers.

The Bharat Bandh, General Strike was earlier called on May 20, however trade unions decided to defer the call to July 9, keeping in mind the escalating hostilities between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack on April 22 in Jammu and Kashmir, and India's decisive reply with Operation Sindoor launched on May 7, targeting terrorist bases in Pakistan.

Workers across the country, including in Delhi, Odisha, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, presented their demands, with multiple political parties also voicing support for the strike.

The protests saw varied responses from people from across the country. As Kerala saw multiple shops shut down, transport services affected, the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu saw bus services resume shortly after today. State-run buses in West Bengal saw their services affected today.

Meanwhile, in Bihar, Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) also attended a 'Bihar Bandh' rally, raising the issue of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out in Bihar.

Several senior leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, including CPI General Secretary D Raja, CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram, Kanhaiya Kumar, and Sanjay Yadav, also participated in the protest.

Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleged the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is trying to repeat 'voter theft' in Bihar, just like in the Maharashtra assembly elections.

'The way there was vote theft in the Maharashtra elections, a similar attempt is being made in Bihar,' the Congress leader said.

Gandhi also raised questions over the rise in voter numbers between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra, alleging that all newly added votes went to the BJP. He claimed that the INDIA alliance's poor performance in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, despite a Lok Sabha majority, prompted a deeper data review that revealed suspicious voting patterns.

Notably, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, also present at the rally, criticised the Election Commission of India for its decision to revise electoral rolls, calling it a 'Godi Aayog.'

Yadav accused the NDA alliance of using the Election Commission of India to remove the name of 'Bihar's poor people' from the voter list.

Congress workers, while participating in the bandh, lay down on the road to block vehicles in Patna.

In West Bengal, clashes erupted during the Bharat Bandh rally. In the Naxalbari area, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and trade union leaders clashed with each other. Meanwhile, in Kolkata, the Police removed protesters from the street to allow a bus to pass through.

On Bharat Bandh, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said, 'Where was Bharat closed, Bengal was fully operational. Public life was fully normal... There was traffic on the roads... If 10-12 people try to block the road, then what will the police do? They tried to remove them normally...'

In Odisha's Bhubaneswar, the ten central trade unions were joined by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)'s trade wing, 'Biju Shramik Samukhya,' protesting weakened workers' rights.

BJD leader Prafulla Samal, while participating in the rally, told ANI, 'The labour organisation of BJD not only supports the protest but has also done the work to make this protest successful... The government at the centre and state is against the workers... The govt has not done anything for the workers... Now they have converted the 44-level law of labour into the four labour codes, which only benefits the owners.'

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader said that this is the 32nd general strike in the history of independent India.

'This will be another historical strike since the last 32 years of the new liberal policy, and it is the 23rd general strike of India... The BJP government has converted four labour codes out of 29 labour laws in the name of ease of doing business. The minimum wage for all categories of workers must be Rs 26,000 per month. For MANREGA, we demand that there should be 200 working days and Rs 600 wage per working day,' the CPI(M) leader said.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala highlighted in Karnataka how over 25 crore protesting workers are carrying out the Bharat Bhand due to the unavailability of jobs in the country.

'Over 25 crore workers and farmer unions are participating (in Bharat Bandh). Bharat Bandh because BJP's new translation is B for 'Band Karo', J for 'Jobs Chheeno' and P for 'Phasad Karvao'... The principal issue is there are no jobs for the young in the country - 30 lakh jobs are vacant, but the government refuses to fill them... The unemployment rate has crossed 30% and at a 45-year high... Budget of MNREGA has stagnated,' Surjewala said in Bengaluru.

While in Jharkhand's Ranchi, Congress's Rajesh Thakur said, 'Now people have no work to do, people are now spreading rumours in panic because of how successful the Bharat Bandh yatra was. There is nothing special about who climbed the truck and who did not. It is clear that when we go out for the public interest, then we don't see whose stage it is... BJP workers keep spreading such types of rumours.'

On March 18, 2025, before the Trade Unions decided to defer the strike to July 9, the National Convention of Workers, organised by the Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations and Associations, adopted a Declaration with a call for a two-month-long campaign to culminate in a Nationwide General Strike on 20th May 2025.

The event, organised at Delhi's Pyare Lal Bhawan, had representatives from multiple Central Trade Unions across states, looking to 'resist against the anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-people policies of the BJP government,' according to a statement from the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU).

'Voices rose in unison, in a chorus of condemnation against the central government that deliberately maintains more than a decade long deaf ear to the consistent demands of the Trade Unions on the one side and their collective rejection of its policies on the other,' the statement added.

'The convention sent out a scathing attack on the brazenly pro-corporate policies in favour of the crony capitalists, creation of monopoly and duopoly capitalists that are detrimental to the working people and overall economic well-being of the country,' the statement read on March 18.

The Central Government in 2020 codified 29 laws into 4 Codes. The centre said the aim is to ensure workers receive security, along with respect, health, and other welfare measures, with ease. The new labour codes include the Code on Wages, Industrial Relations Code, Code on Social Security, and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code.

A total of 10 CTU's, including the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), and the United Trade Union Congress (UTUC) participated in the Bharat Bandh. However, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) did not participate. (ANI)