Thiruvananthapuram: In a novel mode of protest against price rise and LPG subsidy cut, thousands of CPI(M) workers, sympathisers and their family members in Kerala today cooked food on highway sides in the entire stretch of the state to "symbolically express their anguish" at the anti-people policies of the central and state governments.
According to party leaders, nearly one million brick or stone hearths would be set up on the western sides of highways from Manjeswaram in the north to Parassala in the south, with thousands of men and women cooking food on them to highlight the plight of the common people.
"We plan to mobilise over 30 lakh people for the campaign through our 28,000 branch committees. An entire family will gather around each hearth and cook food," they said.
Termed as "fire chain" protest, party leaders and workers, a majority of them women, set up brick hearths along the highways in the evening and cooked food on pots fired by logs and twigs.
The party described the campaign as a symbolic way of conveying the anger of the common man against the policies of the Centre, including the cut in subsidised LPG and failure to rein in runaway inflation.
Party leaders claimed the response had been overwhelming and spontaneous as food was cooked on nearly one million brick or stone hearths set up on the western side of highways from Manjeswaram in the north to Parassala in the south.
Side by side party cadres and sympathisers,family members of CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Politburo member M A Baby and all other state and district leaders also joined the agitation.
CPI(M) had in the past organised "human chain" and "human wall" campaigns on themes such as national integrity and secularism.
PTI
