Stepping up his attack against the Narendra Modi government over the steep hike in fuel prices, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday pointed out that prices of petrol and diesel have been raised nine times in the past 10 days and demanded their immediate rollback.
Leading a protest by Congress MPs on the issue at Vijay Chowk, next to the Parliament complex, Mr. Gandhi said common people have been the most affected by the hike in prices of fuel as well as cooking gas.
Congress members from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, carrying placards, sat on a dharna and raised slogans against the Government.
Among those present were Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
“We can see that petrol and diesel prices are climbing rapidly. The Government is making thousands of crores from this. The Congress is protesting across the country against this price rise of petrol and diesel. The government has to stop doing this...,” Mr. Gandhi said.
“I had said that when elections are over, the prices of petrol and diesel will be rising and had asked people to fill up their tanks,” he noted. “The government is taking out money from the poor and transferring it to the big industrialists”.
Inside the Lok Sabha, Oppostion members staged a walkout after protesting over the issue. As soon as the House assembled, Opposition members from Congress and Trinamool Congress started raising slogans against the fuel price hike and demanded that it should be withdrawn. Speaker Om Birla said he had previously given them opportunity to raise the issue on four occasions and they should not, therefore, disrupt the proceedings. The Opposition , however, continued with their protest.
Apart from Congress and Trinamool Congress, those who took part in the protests included DMK, CPI, CPI(M) and TRS members.
Members of the All India Mahila Congress also staged a brief demonstration outside one of the Parliament gates, taking the security personnel by surprise
On Twitter, Mr. Gandhi shared the comparative rates of petrol — a litre was selling at 66.99 Indian Rupees in Afghanistan, ₹62.38 in Pakistan, ₹72.96 in Sri Lanka, ₹78.53 in Bangladesh, ₹86.28 in Bhutan and ₹97.05 in Nepal. It was ₹101.81 in India.
“Don’t ask questions to the ‘Fakir’, who shares knowledge on camera. Loots India while carrying a bag full of ‘jumlas’ (rhetoric),” Mr. Gandhi said in a Hindi tweet using hashtag “MehangaiMuktBharat”.
The Congress offensive coincided with its week-long nationwide protest “Mehngai Mukt Bharat’ against inflation and rise in fuel prices.
