Prices: Left protests in House & outside

The Left-Congress bonhomie, created during the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, seems over with the former protesting — both within and outside Parliament — against price rise and “anti-people” policies of the government.

The Left-Congress bonhomie, created during the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, seems over with the former protesting — both within and outside Parliament — against price rise and “anti-people” policies of the government.

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Members of the four Left parties, with the Samajwadi Party, walked out of the Lok Sabha protesting the government’s “lack of response” to their demand for a white paper on rise in prices of essential commodities, especially food articles.

Outside Parliament, thousands of activists of Left parties hit the Delhi streets to protest against price rise with its leaders announcing observation of Civil Disobedience Day on April 8 demanding immediate action on the issue.

“The April 8 agitation will be the biggest ‘Jan Andolan’ (mass movement) by the people against the policies of the Union government… If they do not listen, we will work against the government during the remainder of the Budget session,” warned CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat.

They also charged the UPA government of favouring the rich and the corporate sector. “The corporate sector has been given concession worth Rs 80,000 crore while it imposed Rs 60,000 by way of indirect taxes on the working class,” Dasgupta said.

Yechury argued that had the government taken simple steps like distributing 2.75 lakh tonnes of surplus foodgrains from the godowns for distribution through the public distribution system, the prices would have come down. With PTI inputs