Fuel price hike: Punjab Congress mobilises people against Modi govt

PTI6_1_2018_000133B Farmers throw vegetables on a road during a state-wide protests, at Bagha Purana in Moga district of Punjab | PTI

It looks like the Congress in Punjab has already hit the ground running for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Farmers and people from other sections of the society in Punjab are out on the streets protesting not against the Punjab government's policies or the governance of Chief Minister Amarender Singh, but against the policies and functioning of Modi government at the Centre. The farmers in the state had to spend Rs 1500 crores or more on diesel this kharif season compared to last year.

Sunil Jhakar, president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee said, “People are yet to recover from the devastating impact of demonetisation and the poorly implemented GST. Now they have been hit by the spiralling diesel and petrol prices.” Jhakar, who also represents the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency, said in a statement issued on Saturday that the rising oil prices have led to an inflation whose gravity cannot be imagined.

The PPCC's protests will enter the third phase beginning June 7, when they will hold rallies in all the assembly constituencies of the state, and leaders will “expose the failures of the Modi government”. More importantly, it will try to take people clamouring for Modi's promised “achche din”, to the times when Manmohan Singh was prime minister in UPA 1 and UPA 2.

It is not only the rising price of petrol, but the cost of diesel versus that of petrol that appears to have annoyed the farmers. The Congress leader pointed out that when the international prices were $104.09 a barrel in 2012, the Manmohan Singh government was providing diesel at Rs 40.91 a litre and petrol at Rs 73.18 a litre. Now when international crude price is at $69.07 a barrel, the Modi government is selling diesel at Rs 69.07 a litre and petrol at Rs 83.05, Jhakar stated, giving similar trends of petrol prices in UPA 1 under Manmohan Singh.

The party state unit president said that every section of society including the middle, the lower middle class, farmers, traders and labourers are volunteering to protest as they are groaning under the rising prices.

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