Alappuzha, Jan 9: The houseboat of Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt was blocked in the backwaters here for some time by trade union activists, who were on a nationwide strike against the Centre's "anti-labour" policies on Wednesday.
Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at the Stanford University in the United States, said the incident sent a bad message to tourists.
Levitt, who was in Kerala as a state guest, also said he felt as if a bandit had stopped his wife and him at gunpoint. Police said Levitt, who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was in Alappuzha with his wife and they were stopped by the protesters near Kainakary.
"Being stopped by criminals on the backwaters sends a very bad message to tourists. It is as if a bandit stopped us at gunpoint and delayed us under the threat of force for one hour," Levitt wrote in an email to his tour agent at Kottayam.
In the email, which was later released to the media, he also said the person who blocked them "ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted" from the strike.
"This person, who did this, ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted and that I am a VIP guest of the Kerala government. He was obviously acting, knowing that he was safe from prosecution. Sadly, this makes me fear that India is sinking into lawlessness," Levitt wrote in the email.
The police registered a case after the houseboat owners filed a complaint in this regard.
Reacting to the incident, state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the government would take strong action. "Strong action will be taken against those anti-social elements who stopped the boat. Levitt was here as a guest of the state government. The government had made it clear that the tourism industry was exempted from the strike," he said.
Trade union leaders had also announced that the strike would not affect the tourism industry.
Ten trade unions, including the INTUC, the AITUC and the CITU, had called for the nationwide strike to protest against the labour reforms, FDI, disinvestment, corporatisation and privatisation policies of the Centre and press for a 12-point demands of the working class, relating to minimum wage, among others.
The miscreants have been identified as as Rakesh Nazare, Onkar Raichur, Harish Salunke, Vinay Patil and Sagar Benagi, all said to be the members of Sri Ram Sena.
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Dont live your life with HATE in your heart for anyone,
You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you HATE
Dear Brothers.
There is no God but ALLAH and Muhammad pbuh is the last and final messenger of ALLAH. ALLAH guides the one who is HONEST in knowing the TRUTH.
The Prophets of ALLAH are many but 25 Prophets are mentioned in QURAN by name.The best of them are 5
Prophet Noah,
Prophet Abraham,
Prophet Moses,
Prophet Jesus and
Prophet Muhammad - Peace be upon them all.
Mankind needs Guidance from their teachings... They all conveyed that ALLAH is the creator of all that exists (human beings, animals, plants, earth, universe and all that is in between them) and we all should WORSHIP him alone without associating partners.
Everyone is born as a Muslim but their parents take them to worship different man made objects as Gods... which is a Sin. (Until U research on it, You will never understand the consequences on worshiping others beside the True God)
Come to the TRUTH... and use your intellect to know the reality with LOGIC And REASON ---- QURAN invites YOU to use this logic and REASON & compare it with Bible, vedas and other scriptures... PLease TRY to read QURAN (TheQuranproject online)without being bias.
These people are jealous that they cannot attract/convert anybody from other community.....Islam is the best religion....one Allah....one prophet...thank Allah--- am a muslim....
these people can sell ramayana and mahabharatha nobody will come to object
These goons are afraid of people finding truth .and leaving the baseless religion....
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