‘Mehngai Mukt Abhiyan’: Congress to kickstart campaign against rising inflation, fuel price hike

As oil firms passed on the spike in cost of raw material to consumers, the prices of petrol and diesel were hiked by 80 paise per litre each on Saturday — the fourth increase in five days.

Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “People of India have been betrayed, duped and deceived by Modi Government. After keeping the prices of petrol, diesel, gas cylinder, piped natural gas (PNG) & CNG unchanged for 137 days to secure the votes of people, last one week has been a nightmare for budget of every household.”

He alleged that the “everyday increase” in prices of petrol and diesel and cumbersome increase in prices of gas cylinder, PNG and CNG has shown that the dictum for Modi government is “fleece the people, fill coffers”. Hence, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in consultation with general secretaries and in-charges, decided to launch a three-phased programme — “Mehngai Mukt Abhiyan” — to champion people’s voice, the Congress said in a statement.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also took a swipe at the Modi government over the rising prices. In a tweet, Gandhi said: “King prepares for palace, while subjects reel under inflation.”

Releasing the schedule of the programme, Surjewala said Congress workers and common people will protest outside their houses and at public places with garlanded gas cylinders at 11 am on March 31. They will also beat drums, ring bells and use the sound of other instruments to draw attention of the “deaf BJP government” towards the steep increase in fuel prices.

Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed said petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs 3.20 a litre in just one week. “Fuel prices were kept constant for 4 months before elections and now hiked four times in just a week. This shameless fleecing of the public must stop!” she tweeted.

The district level ‘Mehngai Mukt Bharat’ dharna and march will be organised between April 2, 2022 and April 4, 2022 while the state level dharna and march will be be held at the state headquarters on April 7.

The grand old party alleged that over the eight years of its rule, the Modi government has increased the excise duty on petrol and diesel by 531 per cent and 203 per cent.

“Since the lockdown two years ago, the extent of extortion and profiteering by repeated increases in prices and excise duty on petrol and diesel has surpassed all forms of exploitation. On 22nd March 2020, petrol and diesel rates were Rs 69.59 and Rs 62.29 respectively, which have been raised to Rs 98.61 and Rs 89.87 per litre respectively, an increase of Rs 29.02 for petrol and Rs 27.58 for diesel only in last two years,” it added.