Nation-wide strike planned against Indian reforms

India's opposition parties, trade unions and shopkeepers are set to hold a nation-wide strike on Thursday against the government's decision to open the retail sector to foreign supermarkets.

The main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) will be joined in the protest by left-wing groups and the Samajwadi Party, which rules the biggest and most populous state of India, Uttar Pradesh.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), an umbrella body of nearly 10,000 trade federations, said it would mobilise for the day of defiance against the reforms which have been welcomed by investors and business leaders.

"The small traders will be wiped out once the multinational giants begin their operations in India simply because they operate on a predatory pricing policy to wipe out all competition," CAIT secretary Praveen Khandelwal told AFP.

All shops would be shut and traders would get together to discuss their strategy, he added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government announced on Friday that supermarket giants such as Wal-Mart and Tesco would be allowed to own 51-percent of large multi-brand stores in India.

Previously proposals to open the door to the global giants, which are restricted to wholesale operations in India currently, has led to fierce resistance, including from a ruling coalition partner.

The Trinamool Congress, a regional party from the state of West Bengal inside Singh's coalition, was likely to pull its ministers out of the government but offer support to the ruling coalition from outside, local media reported.

"She will wait for the next big policy confrontation to withdraw support to Congress-led government at the centre," the Economic Times said on Monday, quoting a senior leader of the Trinamool party.

A joint statement issued by the Left and a host of other opposition parties over the weekend also exhorted "all patriotic-minded citizens" to join the day-long protest on Thursday.

"There will be a powerful protest on September 20. We will hold hartals (strike), picketings, demonstrations and court arrest programmes," Gurudas Dasgupta of the Communist Party of India told AFP.

"The UPA government has stuck cruel blows on the people one after another... let us all unite to stop these measures which will further burden the people and ruin their livelihood," said the statement.

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