The Higher Secondary Certificate and the Secondary School Certificate examinations scheduled for Friday have been postponed by the respective boards in view of the call for a 'Maharashtra Bandh' given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and supported by the state BJP. R B Phansalkar, chairman (Mumbai division) of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education told Mid-Day that the SSC and HSC exams scheduled for tomorrow will be posponed in view of the bandh call. "The first SSC paper (English), earlier scheduled to be held tomorrow has been postponed to March 18. Similarly, all HSC papers scheduled to be held tomorrow have been postponed to March 16." There is no word yet on the ICSE (for Std X) and CBSE (for Std XII) exams scheduled tomorrow. BJP supports bandh, Sena neutral
The state BJP has decided to support the bandh call given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, but the Shiv Sena has decided to remain neutral. Vinod Tawde, city BJP chief said, "This attack at Godhra is on the lines of the attack on Parliament. Our bandh is not against any community but against the forces which are acting against the country. And we feel that the common man on the streets is supporting us."
Sena leader Raj Thackeray said, "I just spoke to Balasaheb, It seems that the BJP and VHP leaders had come to us asking for support. But Balasaheb asked them to postpone the bandh because of the SSC exams which are scheduled to begin tomorrow. However, they said that since the bandh had already been declared, it was not possible to postpone it. So we will not support the bandh and even not oppose it."
BEST General manager Rahul Asthana said, "We will run our services tomorrow but in case the police advises us to stay off, we will withdraw our buses."
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