Congress plans to stage protest in Belagavi against price rise

Ministers Satish Jarkiholi and Laxmi Hebbalkar addressing a party workers meeting at the Congress Bhavan in Belagavi.
| Photo Credit: P.K. BADIGER

The Congress will organise a protest in Belagavi on April 27 and 28 against the economic policies of the Union government that it claims have led to the price rise.

Ministers Satish Jarkiholi and Laxmi Hebbalkar chaired a meeting to review preparations for the protest at the Congress Bhavan in Belagavi recently.

Mr. Jarkiholi said that the protest rally will be held on the CPED Grounds. Congress leaders, including the Chief Minister and his Cabinet collegaues, have already held a protest rally in Bengaluru.

He said that around 30,000 people are expected to participate in the Belagavi protest. AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and others will participate.

“In the last 11 years, the Central government has increased prices steeply. All that has happened due to the wrong and ill-advised economic policies of the Union government. Indiscriminate privatisation and disinvestment, tax exemptions for the super rich, non-regulation of fuel prices, inadequate market intervention of farm produce and wrong fiscal policies have led to the price rise. All this is well documented. But now, the BJP is making a big hue and cry against the Congress government in the State saying that the price rise is due to the policies of the State government. All this outcry is to cover up their mistakes. We are organising the protests across the State to tell the truth behind price rise and the real reasons behind them,” Mr. Jarkiholi claimed.

“The BJP has been blaming the earlier Congress governments and finding faults with the Constitution for its deliberate mistakes. This is unacceptable,” he said.

Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar said that the BJP is wrongly blaming the guarantees of the Congress government for the hike in prices of essential commodities. The guarantees were introduced to help the poor fight inflation. It is false and baseless to say that the guarantees have caused price rise. “The Congress protest will bring the facts to light and create awareness about various issues among the public,” she said.

Ms. Hebbalkar said that another theme of the rally is “Save the Constitution”.

“The price of fuel, food and essential commodities has been increased by the BJP government. It has increased prices including those of gas cylinders, oil, groceries, cement, fertilizers and medicine. We will tell the people who is behind this rise. The BJP is misleading the people by misrepresenting the facts. BJP leaders believe that a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth. But this tactic will not work all the time,” the Minister said.

MLAs Asif Seth, Babasaheb Patil, Rajya Sabha member G.C. Chandrashekar, AICC secretaries Abhishek Dutta, M. Palaniappan, District Congress Committee president Vinay Navalagatti, party leader Sunil Hannannavara and others were present in the meeting.