Riding horse-carts and bicycles, Congress leaders across the country led protests against the daily increase in fuel prices with party chief Sonia Gandhi terming it as a new form of extortion.
Congress leaders fanned out across cities with microphones and video cameras in hand, seeking views of citizens on fuel prices that have seen increase for the past three weeks and were retailing at more than Rs 80 per litre.
Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Rajeev Satav, and Manickam Tagore rode bicycles from the AICC headquarters to Parliament, while Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary set off the city streets on a horse-cart waving banner protesting the successive increase in petrol and diesel prices.
“It is the duty of the government to support the citizens in times of crisis and not resort to profiteering in the time of trouble. The government has set a new example of extortion from people through this unjust increase in prices of petrol and diesel,” Congress President Sonia Gandhi said.
She noted that the price of diesel has increased by Rs 11 per litre and petrol by Rs 9.62 per litre in the past three weeks, mainly due to the increase in excise duty by the central government.
Rahul Gandhi said crude prices were at an all-time low world over, but petrol and diesel prices were at an all-time high in India. “The government has hurt the interest of the common man by increasing fuel prices for 22 days,” he said and demanded an immediate rollback.
In Odisha, state Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik set off interviewing auto-rickshaw drivers about the impact of fuel price hike, while Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, led a protest march in West Bengal.
Congress also whipped up a social media storm as its workers and supporters posted videos protesting the fuel price hike and demanding its roll back.