New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the protesting MPs outside the Parliament to flag the high prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, which, in turn, are pushing up the prices of essential food items. This situation further aggravates the financial position of a large number of Indians who have been impacted by an economic slump caused due to two successive years of the Coronavirus pandemic.
For the grand old party, which has suffered a series of poll losses in states over the past two years, taking up a public issue in a big way provides an opportunity to re-establish its pro-people credentials. Price rise is also an issue, the Congress managers feel, that makes the Central government uncomfortable.
When the UPA was in power, the main opposition BJP used to regularly attack the Congress government led by PM Manmohan Singh over the price rise issue. The protests hurt the Congress as the BJP was an aggressive opposition, mainly due to its strength of over 125 MPs in the Lok Sabha. In comparison, the Congress had just 44 Lok Sabha MPs in 2014 and went up marginally to 52 in 2019.
Yet, the grand old party seems to have learnt to make its protests more dramatic. Rahul laid symbolic wreaths on an empty cooking gas cylinder and a scooter outside the Parliament to make a point.
“Fuel prices have risen 9 times in the past 10 days. Government is making thousands of crores out of this hike. We are protesting the price hike across the country as it affects the common people,” he said. Similar anti-price rise protests will be staged at the district level between April 2 to 4 and on April 7 marches will be taken out in the state capitals.
The former party chief further said he had warned the people that the prices of fuel would be increased after the recent round of five assembly polls was over though the government kept them under check for 137 days after the elections were announced. “The government must stop this hike,” he said, adding that petrol was being sold in Delhi at a historic high of Rs 102 per litre and the price of a cooking gas refit had doubled over the past one year.
Inside Parliament, Congress led other opposition parties like DMK, NC, CPI, CPI-M, IUML, VCK, MDMK, JMM, Shiv Sena, NCP and Trinamool Congress to stage walk-out in the Lok Sabha over price rise. "We want a debate on the issue," Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhury said.
Also read: Petrol, diesel prices hiked by 80 paise; total increase now stands at Rs 6.40
