I've gone from "snow days" to "strike days"...

Today was technically a "strike" day and the minute I got to work, I got sent home in one of Veerni's cars. They did not really explain to me what was happening, but through a discussion with some Indian friends and by reading a Jodhpur paper later on, I gathered a tiny bit of what the situation is. In the process, I learned that the national paper I read each morning (like all national papers here, someone claimed) is run by a religious faction and therefore extremely skewed.

But here's what seems to be going on, from a less-biased NDTV.com:

"Jodhpur will be closed down on 3rd July, 2008.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday called for a nationwide strike on Thursday over the Jammu and Kashmir government's order cancelling land allotment to Amarnath shrine authorities.

BJP chief Rajnath Singh alleged that the state government's decision to revoke the allotment of 40-hectare forestland to the Shree Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) for development of facilities for pilgrims was a 'complete surrender to the fundamentalist and separatist forces'.

'By revoking the allotment of this land, the Congress party has demonstrated that it is one with the fundamentalists in creating a theocratic environment in the Kashmir valley,' the party alleged in a statement.

'The BJP calls for a nationwide strike on July 3 to protest against this monstrous act of revoking the allotted land to the shrine board,' the statement said.

There were violent protests in the Valley during the past week after the government decided to hand over the forest land for the SASB and there were angry demonstrations in Jammu after the state government cancelled the land allotment.

On Saturday, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) pulled out of the Congress-led coalition government in the state, protesting the land allotment.

The radical group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which also called for a countrywide shutdown on the same day, announced it would launch a phased agitation till the Jammu and Kashmir government gave the land back to the SASB."


Apparently, near me it is still safe (though, as a precaution, few people went out today and virtually every shop, market, and tourist site was shut down). But the situation seems a bit up in the air (one NGO director here made sure no new interns were taking the train here until Monday--apparently protests often happen on rail tracks), so travel plans for the weekend are definitely getting postponed. And so far, I've gathered that it's basically taxi and rickshaw drivers on strike (I'm not sure who else), as these people tend to be part of these religious groups. But it's all really vague, so for now, I've been putting myself on house arrest and just waiting to see what happens.