NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi led a protest against rising fuel prices by party MPs – from both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha – at Vijay Chowk near the Parliament in Delhi on Thursday, kicking off a nationwide agitation against the increase in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas.
Speaking to media persons, Gandhi, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Wayanad, came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and demanded a rollback of the increased prices.
Gandhi worshipped and garlanded an overturned bike and an LPG cylinder as a mark of protest. He also raised slogans against the Central government over the fuel prices that have been hiked nine times in the last 10 days.
“Our demand is that the government should control prices and stop raising petrol and diesel prices,” Gandhi said, adding that the poor and middle class were worst hit by the hike.
He further said, “We can see that petrol and diesel prices are soaring rapidly. The government is making thousands of crores of rupees from this hike. Congress is protesting across the country against this rise of petrol and diesel prices. The government has to stop doing this. It has to ensure that prices do not rise.”
Prices of petrol and diesel were hiked by 80 paise a litre each on Thursday, taking the total rise in fuel rates in the last 10 days to Rs 6.40 per litre. Petrol now sells petrol at Rs 101.81 per litre while diesel is being sold at Rs 93.01 litre in Delhi.
Gandhi said that he had predicted a rise in fuel prices during the elections to five states. “I had said that people should fill up their vehicle’s tanks before the elections conclude,” he quipped.