Occupy Dalal Street movement fizzles out on day one

The 'Occupy' movement, which has taken the West by storm with hundreds of people camping in open areas against greedy capitalism, reached the nation's financial capital today, but fizzled out within an hour with the Left-leaning activists - counting just 27 - being arrested.

India, into the third decade of economic liberalization that has put the economy into a high growth trajectory and home to a very large middle class, becomes the 83rd country and Mumbai the 1,501st city to witness the protests.

The Occupy Wall Street movement started in the private park Zuccotti in New York's downtown Manhattan area in mid September caught the attention of the rest of the world, particularly in the West which is reeling under an extended period of financial turbulences.

A handful organisations like the Communist Party of India, its student wing, the All India Bank Employees Association and even a body sympathising with the Telangana cause started assembling at the high-security Dalal Street that houses the Bombay Stock Exchange building to begin the India-leg of the global movement titled 'Occupy Dalal Street' in the late hours of trading today.

The protest kicked off with demonstrations by banner-holding bank employees, but enterprising attempts by others to reach the iconic BSE tower or its periphery were thwarted by the waiting policemen.

"We have arrested 27 persons, including a woman, for breach of prohibitory orders and assembling unlawfully," senior inspector of the local MRA Marg Police Station Padmakar Juikar told PTI.

The protest, which was planned by the CPI ten days ago, also saw the trickling in of some impassionate individuals, including Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of the Mahatma.

"Such protests are required to shake up the complacency of the government which gauges economic progress with the stock market," Gandhi said.

Artist and poet Sanjeev Khandekar, who also participated in the protest after reading up on a social networking site, said his ire was not directed as much at the investment bankers and greed as in the West, but at the establishment in general.

"There is an urgent need for transparency in economic decision-making to avoid scams like 2G. We are not saying Occupy Dalal Street, but occupy every establishment which has marginalised the common man," Khandekar said.

The AIBEA, which was protesting at the entrance of a public sector bank during the banking hours, lasted the longest without detention and raised slogans against the rising non-performing assets in the banking system and its long opposition to banking reforms, for which it had shut the banking system in the recent past.

CPI spokesperson Prakash Reddy, who was picked up after speaking with the large number of media persons, said the police should arrest the scamsters who are defrauding thousands of crores rather than the protestors.

When asked why the larger CPM is not involved, Reddy said, "they were contacted but did not elicit positive response. It seems the CPM has some differences of opinion on this."

"Going forward, this movement will only grow from here and this is just the beginning," he thundered before getting packed in a waiting police van.