)
"If the government feels it will be able to succeed in foiling the strike by applying brute force, like threatening administrative action, it is undemocratic, unconstitutional and illegal," CPI(M) politburo member Suryankanta Mishra said.
"It is unbecoming on the part of a chief minister to hold out threats and issue warning of administrative action, like cancelling trade licence, in case shops are closed during a strike," Mishra, who is the Leader of the Opposition, said.
Stating that it was an individual right to join a strike, he said, "Threats or warning to suppress it, cannot be accepted."
Mishra said it was regrettable that the Centre had not taken any positive stand on the demands by central TUs and federations during the one-day general strike on February 28 last year.
"The government itself does not obey its own rules," Mishra claimed.
