Bharat Bandh: 21 Opposition parties extend support to Congress

NEW DELHI: As the Congress and other opposition parties staged a nationwide bandh to protest against government’s “faltering” economic policies, political leaders from both the sides debated the rising prices of fuel and the falling value of the currency.While the government defended itself by saying that fuel prices are governed by external factors and not under its control, the opposition insisted that government is solely responsible for the present economic scenario in the country.“We are standing with the people of this country and trying to find a solution,” Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.Claiming that the fuel prices are beyond the control of the Indian government, Prasad listed a series of external factors, which he claimed, are responsible for driving up the fuel prices.“Oil producing nations, OPEC, have been restricting their exports, there is an economic crisis in Venezuela, the US has re-imposed sanctions on Iran and it is yet to fully realise its shale gas production,” Prasad said.Prasad also hit back the Congress accusing it of resorting to violence and disrupting the day-to-day life of the common man by calling for a bandh.“Everyone has a right to protest but what is happening today? Petrol pumps and buses being set ablaze, putting to risk lives. A child died after an ambulance was stuck in the protests in Bihar's Jehanabad. Who is responsible?” he said.Opposition parties have been up in arms against the government for its failure on the economic front, especially the rising prices of petrol and diesel.On Monday, when the opposition parties were on the roads demanding a rollback, fuel prices continued its northward march with petrol and diesel being sold at Rs 80.73 and Rs 72.83 per litre, respectively, in the national capital. The petrol and diesel prices saw a hike of 23 and 22 paise per litre respectively in Delhi.Congress president Rahul Gandhi , who in an apparent show of opposition unity, led the Congress protest in the capital. “Today, the entire opposition is sitting together. All of us will work together to oust BJP (government). Narendra Modi ji is silent, he has not spoken a word on rising prices of fuel, or condition of farmers, neither on atrocities against women,” he said.The Congress chief was accompanied by several senior leaders of his and other regional parties, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "Modi government has done a number of things that were not in the interest of the nation. The time to change this government will come soon,” Singh said.Taking a dig at the government, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP government is so proud that they can even say that “inflation will bring development”."The BJP government is so proud of themselves that even today when the opposition has called for a 'bandh' they have increased fuel price in some places,” the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said.Meanwhile, the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath, called the bandh a ‘frustrated’ attempt by the opposition. "Frustrated opposition doesn't have any strategy and leadership, what else can be expected from them? I hope God gives them sense so they can differentiate between positive and negative otherwise in future they will even lose their position as opposition," he said.BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should ask his petroleum minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, to curb the rising prices of fuel."I feel that the macroeconomic price for petrol is Rs 40 and somehow the PM must ask the Petroleum Minister to think as a part of Economic Affairs Ministry and not as petroleum minister and stop setting prices so high that people can go to the point of revolt," Swamy said.CPM leader Sitaram Yechury termed the rise in fuel prices a result of "callous government"."Fuel prices allowed to soar, by a callous government, making lives of ordinary Indians impossible. Most appropriate that Modi photos are at all petrol stations. But People paying for the Rs 4343 crore spent on these farzi (fake) ads. Shameful," he said.