Bloc supporters attack a police vehicle. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Calcutta, Feb. 5: “Do-it-now” has finally worked in Bengal — in calling a bandh.

The Trinamul Congress and the Forward Bloc — supposedly belonging to two irreconcilable political formations — took less than two-and-a-half hours to decide to shut Bengal down on Wednesday in response to Tuesday’s tragedy in Cooch Behar.

The violence was at its peak around 1.30pm, and the Bloc called the 24-hour bandh by 3pm. Quick thinking, in hindsight: any delay could have meant Mamata Banerjee offering support before the shutdown itself was announced.

By 4pm — within an hour of the Bloc calling the bandh — Mamata had offered support, displaying unparalleled agility and unity of purpose for causing disruption.

The Congress, the SUCI and some Naxalite groups soon jumped on the bandwagon, the rainbow coalition coming together not to construct but to cripple. None of these parties has shown the same initiative to make things happen in Bengal — the objective behind the now-forgotten “do-it-now” slogan.

Some parties within the Left Front, too, offered “moral support” to the bandh. Roles reversed, the CPM — the master of the bandh game now under attack from allies — could only watch a godsend to hone its shutdown skills pass by.

The bandh call was so unexpected that even at 10pm today, it could not be said with any certainty which institutions and facilities will stay open in Bengal tomorrow.

Mamata asserted today that a political party would have to call a bandh when other options dry up.

“There’s nothing called Left or Right when it comes to upholding people’s interests. That’s why we support the Bloc’s bandh as it is necessary at this juncture to expose the CPM,” she said.

Echoing Mamata, Bloc leader and former minister Hafiz Alam Sairani said: “It’s not a question of Right or Left. It’s a matter of shame that supporters of the second largest ally of the Left Front were killed by its government. That has to be condemned. For that, any party has the right to join the protest.”