The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the Centre had put the the common man in a dire situation by allowing fuel prices to be increased to an unprecedented level even though the country was exporting petroleum products at much lower prices, said Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader A. Lazar.
Speaking at a protest staged here on Monday as part of a nationwide bandh, he said that through measures such as increasing prices of petrol and diesel, raising excise duty and cutting subsidy for cooking gas, people had been put to much hardship by the BJP government in the last four years.
Adding to the burden, the State governments had also imposed huge taxes on petroleum prices. The Centre had also failed to generate employment opportunities.
While, on the one hand, the BJP was putting the blame on increasing global prices for the spiralling price of petroleum products, on the other hand, it was not ready to reduce excise duty to alleviate hardships of the public. “Ironically this country is importing a huge volume of petroleum products and selling them to the common man at a higher price. At the same time, it is also exporting petroleum products at around half the price to several countries,” he said.
“Yet, the BJP has the gall to talk about coming back to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This arrogance stems from the fact that it has been allowing corporates to make huge profits out of unprecedented price increase of petroleum products. A huge portion of this profit is ploughed back to the BJP as party funds. It plans to spend this money to win the elections,” he said.
Out of the ₹ 2,100 crores given as party funds by various corporates, BJP was the biggest beneficiary as it received ₹ 1,600 crore. This government was only for the corporates and not for the common people, he added. Around 200 cadre staged a dharna in front of the Head Post Office on Scott Road.
In the rural areas of Madurai district, about 600 cadre of various parties, including CPI(M) rural district secretary C. Ramakrishnan and CPI leader P. Kalidoss and Congress leader Jeyaraman, courted arrest when they attempted to stage road roko in 16 places.
