Kolkata: Fresh from the rains, on June 19 the city’s iconic Red Road is gleaming. The grand historic avenue almost mirrors the sky. This is because, in a rare sight for the city, it is completely empty of vehicles. Closed to all regular traffic to prepare it for celebrations of International Yoga Day on June 21, the usually busy road is now dressed in ceremonial infrastructure.Long rows of guardrails run down both sides of the road, barricades at either end block the traffic and rain slides down the “Kolkata Police” signs. In the middle of the road, just opposite the Police Memorial, workers are busy building a 60 feet by 40 feet stage. Tall metal towers, fitted with giant TV screens and speakers, are being wrapped with plastic. A few white tents are scattered about. Just next to the stage, two bulldozers are on standby. A car is parked just inside what would otherwise have been an entrance to the blocked road. “On Duty PM Event,” says a sticker on its windshield. The Red Road Yoga Day venue on June 19. Photo: Anwesha Banerjee.Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to attended the celebrations on June 21 – to prepare for which the newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government has shut down this arterial road for seven days.Not only does the decision affect thousands of commuters who use the road to move around and in and out of the city everyday, it comes mere weeks after the government forced the traditional Eid prayers off the Red Road citing commuter inconvenience.A cutout of Narendra Modi on Red Road, on June 19. Photo: Anwesha Banerjee.In a notification dated June 14, the day on which the road was blocked to traffic, Kolkata Police stated that the purpose of the shutdown was the “observance of the 12th International Day of Yoga at Red Road on 21.06.2026,” and that “commuters are requested to plan their journeys accordingly and follow the directions of traffic personnel.” When contacted, Pandey Santosh, the Additional Commissioner of Police (III) for the Kolkata Police, who is in charge of overseeing city traffic told The Wire that three alternative roads are available. “For North-South movement, three alternatives to Red Road are available – Dufferin Road, Chowringhee Road and Strand Road. Strand Road and Chowringhee Roads are absolutely normal and can be used as good alternatives.” Not everyone is convinced. “Shifting the Eid prayers was done under the guise of helping us commuters, but this week-long shutdown is five times worse,” said Rajesh Gupta, a daily commuter who travels from South Kolkata’s Ballygunge to his office near BBD Bag. “My usual 40-minute bus ride took nearly an hour and a half today because the entire Jawaharlal Nehru Road stretch is choked. If the objective is to reduce commuter pain, closing a vital highway for seven days to build a stage makes absolutely no sense.”A high court hearingFormally known as Indira Gandhi Sarani, Red Road connects South and Central Kolkata to the city’s primary institutional, commercial, and legal hubs, including BBD Bag or Dalhousie Square, the administrative heart of West Bengal, housing the Writers’ Building, the RBI office, the GPO, the office of the Tea Board, the headquarters of almost all major banks, the New Secretariat, the Eastern Railway Headquarters, and several major corporate offices. It also leads to the Calcutta high court, as well as to the Howrah Bridge and the Howrah station, the principal gateway for lakhs of commuters travelling into Kolkata from neighbouring districts.The Red Road Yoga Day venue earlier this week. Photo: By arrangement.Narrower parallel roads are alternatives but lead to traffic jams.An advocate at the high court told this reporter how there is a risk of a case getting passed over if counsel arrive even 15 minutes late.The Calcutta high court on June 18 questioned the necessity of keeping Kolkata’s Red Road closed but refused to interfere with the state government’s decision. Justice Saugata Bhattacharya asked Additional Advocate General Billwadal Bhattacharya, representing the Bengal government, why arrangements could not be made in the neighbouring Brigade Parade ground while keeping Red Road open. “Would the importance have been less if it was held at the Brigade Parade Ground? Residents could get to use the road,” the court asked. The court’s remarks had come in a petition filed by the All India Lawyers’ Association against the Red Road blockade. Advocate Bikram Banerjee, of the AILA, told The Wire that the court asked the police administration to make alternative arrangements and reopen the roads immediately after the events. The Red Road Yoga Day venue earlier this week. Photo: By arrangement.A double standardPublic transport users, particularly those traveling from Behala, Kudghat, Kasba and Jadavpur on buses, have been having a difficult week. For app cab drivers, the week-long blockade has impacted their daily earnings. Bijoy Krishna Jana highlights the financial toll: “Passengers are angry because wait times and fares have surged due to the traffic jam. If I take a booking from Ballygunge to Howrah Station, I used to go smoothly via Red Road.” Mohammad Yunus, another cab driver, says, “Strand Road and J.L. Nehru Road are completely choked. We are idling in bumper-to-bumper traffic for nearly an hour just to cross a two-kilometre patch. It’s hurting our pockets and our sanity.”Kolkata: People offer prayers on the occasion of Eid al-Adha at Brigade Parade Ground, in Kolkata, Thursday, May 28, 2026. Photo: PTI.Meanwhile, the institutional discrimination and religious double standard is lost on no one. Many pointed out the stark irony, a Muslim prayer gathering that blocked the road for less than two hours once a year, on a national holiday, was deemed an unacceptable public nuisance, while an event backed by the ruling party was permitted to paralyse the city’s traffic for more than a week.It is said that the Eid congregation began at Red Road in 1919 after the Shahid Minar area was waterlogged that year. A user posted on X, “Is the law equal for everyone, or does its application change depending on the nature of the event?” Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra wrote, “Eid prayers could not be held for 1 hour for 1 day on Red Road, but same Red Road closed to traffic for a week for Yoga Divas,” capturing the public resentment.Many pointed out how even functions like the Republic Day parade or the Durga Puja Carnival did not necessitate the closing of the Red Road for a week.Traffic ahead of the Red Road. Photo: Anwesha Banerjee.Relief for state government employeesA day ago, the Calcutta high court heard another petition, by the State Coordination Committee of the West Bengal Government Employees, challenging the mandatory participation of government employees at the Yoga Day event.Justice Amrita Sinha said, “The participation of the government employees are not mandatory as clarified by the state government. It is purely voluntary. The government will not take any disciplinary action against anyone who would not attain.” Committee secretary Biswajit Gupta Chowdhury called this verdict a “moral victory of state government employees”.“Yoga is not any emergency,” Gupta Chowdhury told The Wire. “Compulsory participation in yoga cannot be made mandatory under the Service Rule.”The Committee has nearly 1.75 lakh members, among whom 39,000 are in service now, Gupta Chowdhury says, adding that the verdict comes as relief to many contractual and casual employees as well.