Calcutta, Nov. 30: The high court?s interim ruling today proved a great leveller: the Citu, the labour arm of the ruling CPM, began to speak the language of arch rival Mamata Banerjee?s Trinamul Congress.

Soon after the ruling, which asked both Trinamul and the Citu to call off their respective protest programmes, the trade union said it would stick to its 30-minute ?chakka jam? (stopping the movement of vehicles) on Wednesday as it had not received a copy of the court order till Tuesday evening.

?How can we be expected to call off the programme after learning about the court order from newspersons?? asked Kali Ghosh, the state Citu secretary, using a familiar escape route. ?I don?t expect to receive the copy tonight. So the programme stands.?

Despite the brave front, minutes after the ruling, the Citu leadership ? its president Shyamal Chakraborty, Ghosh and other senior leaders ? went into a long strategy session.

Sources said the leaders felt uncomfortable with the court?s tough position on bandhs. But they concluded that tomorrow?s protest programme could be held as no copy of the court order has reached them.

In the Citu?s view, a programme like chakka jam cannot be equated with the Trinamul bandh as it does not seek to shut down the entire state or the city. ?If summoned, we will explain this point to the court,? said a Citu leader.

Tomorrow?s stop-the-wheels programme from 12 noon, called by the Citu-affiliated West Bengal Road Transport Workers Federation, an amalgam of over 50 lobbies, is meant to protest the increase in the prices of petroleum products.

?The hike in petrol and diesel prices has hit thousands in the transport sector,? said transport minister Subhas Chakraborty, also a senior Citu functionary and the president of the federation.

?These hapless people must be in a position to register their protest. The court cannot stop them from making use of their democratic right to fight back.?

Chakraborty?s assertion, however, contrasts sharply with his personal view that people could soon ?beat up politicians for calling bandhs?.