Making his first public appearance after returning from the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday led the Opposition charge against rising fuel prices and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on key issues such as the Rafale deal, unemployment, women’s safety and farmers’ suicides.
With 21 parties extending support to the Congress’ call for the Bharat bandh , it tried to project the shutdown as yet another show of strength by a united Opposition.
SP, BSP stay away
However, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party did not join the Opposition protests in Delhi. The Congress claimed both the parties had lent their support and held a joint protest in Uttar Pradesh, including the PM’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi.
In Delhi, Mr. Gandhi started the protests after offering holy water from the Mansarovar lake at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Raj Ghat. Accompanied by senior Congress and other Opposition leaders, Mr. Gandhi marched to an Indian Oil fuel pump, over a kilometre away from Raj Ghat, and sat there on a dharna for nearly three hours.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and estranged Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav also joined the protest. Other Opposition leaders included Trinamool Congress’ Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh, Janata Dal (Secular) leader Danish Ali and Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary. While the dharna was on, Karnataka CM H.D. Kumaraswamy met the Prime Minister seeking a relief of ₹1,199 crore for flood-hit districts of the State.
Targeting the PM for a record high in fuel prices and fall in rupee, Mr. Gandhi said: “The value of the rupee has never been so weak in the last 70 years; petrol prices have crossed a little over ₹80 a litre and diesel a little below ₹80. Modiji used to move around the country to say that petrol prices are going up, diesel prices are going up. Today, he doesn’t utter a word.”
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in several States. In Bihar, a two-year-old girl died on her way to a hospital in Jehanabad apparently due to a road blockade.
Rahul Gandhi slams Modi’s ‘divisive’ politics
Mr. Gandhi targeted PM Modi for his ‘divisive’ politics. Addressing the protest here against soaring fuel prices, Mr. Gandhi alleged that the country is being “divided” under the Modi government as never before.
“Narendra Modi used to say that nothing has happened in 70 years and we will do it in four years. It is true, what he has done in four years had not happened in 70 years. Wherever you see, one Indian is fighting another. Wherever you go, they divide people — one religion against another, one caste against another and one State pitted against the other,” he added.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “The Modi government has done a lot which is not in national interest. Now it has crossed the limit and the time has come to change it.”
The bandh called by the Opposition evoked mixed response across the country.
Normal life was hit in several parts of Bihar, with the shutdown being supported by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left, among others.
In Karnataka, normal life was affected as public transport kept off the roads across the State. Schools and colleges were closed.
Activists of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena damaged a Pune Municipal Corporation bus, but in Maharashtra’s hinterland, the bandh received a lukewarm response.
In Gujarat, the police detained over 500 Congress workers for forcibly enforcing the bandh.
In flood-ravaged Kerala, public vehicles went off the roads, while shops, markets and establishments were shut.
The shutdown was mostly ineffective in West Bengal.
(With Bureau, agency inputs)
