Opposition leaders on Monday accused the Modi government of pursuing “anti-people policies” and cheating the people on various issues, besides remaining silent on the rising prices of fuel and other essential items.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar accused the NDA regime of betraying the people through fuel price hikes and said that a beginning had been made to oust the “anti-people” Modi government in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing a joint opposition protest rally at the Ramlila Maidan here against petrol and diesel price hikes, Pawar said that power had gone into the wrong hands, and parties opposed to the government have to work together to remove it.

“We have to bring about a change. If a change has to be brought, all political parties who work to protect the interests of people have to make joint efforts to remove this anti-people government. If we are ready to proceed on this path, we will get the support of people… power has gone into wrong hands and we will rid the country of it,” the former Union Minister said.

He said that a beginning has been made with Monday’s protest called by the Congress and supported by nearly 20 political parties.

Without naming the BJP, Pawar said that people running the government for the past four years had assured that prices of commodities of daily use will be kept under check but steps that should have been taken were not taken.

Pawar took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his speech at the BJP National Executive meet on Sunday. “He talked of his government’s bravery, but this bravery is in pulling down the rupee, this bravery is in raising fuel prices, this bravery is in raising cooking gas prices.”

The former Union Minister also countered the BJP charge that nothing happened in the last many decades, and said such allegations were quite strange.

“Then Leader of the Opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee told Parliament that such remarks were an insult to farmers who had made India self-dependent in food grains, an insult to labourers who worked to increase industrial production and export…”

He also took a dig at the BJP vis-a-vis commemorating Vajpayee, saying the BJP veteran was not remembered when he was alive. Instead of taking his name now daily, BJP leaders should follow his message if they wanted to pay him real tributes.

In his remarks, Trinamool Congress leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy accused the Modi government of “cheating people on every issue.”

Revolutionary Socialist Party Member of Parliament N.K. Premachandran said that protests by various political outfits was an indication that the entire country is agitated and protesting against the government’s “anti-people policies”.

Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary said the BJP leaders were silent on issues affecting the people, including fuel prices and unemployment.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren said that the government had “looted” about Rs 10 lakh crore from the poor, farmers, labourers and the middle class through increased prices of petroleum products.

“The Prime Minister calls himself a fakir (acetic). I am surprised. We have seen plunderers loot the country, but it is for the first time that a ‘fakir’ is looting the country,” he said.

(IANS)

The Telangana Assembly elections are most likely to be held prior to the state polls for four other states.

A team from the Election Commission of India will visit TS on September 11 to assess the situation for holding early elections.

Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar is leaving for Delhi on Monday, a day prior to the visit of the Election Commission team to the state, and is learnt to have prepared a report to be submitted to the EC stating that all arrangements are in place to conduct elections in the last week of November.

The terms of the Assemblies in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram are due to end between December 15 and January 20, while the TS Assembly’s term already ended on September 6.

As per preliminary reports, the EC wants to hold elections for the four states in December by releasing the schedule in October-end or November first week. It is in favour of issuing the schedule for Telangana Assembly elections in October second week and holding elections in November last week.

(PTI)

The nationwide six-hour strike called by the Congress and the Left Front sponsored 12-hour general strike in West Bengal evoked a lukewarm response on Monday as people came out in numbers on the streets while public transport was available in the city and suburbs amid tight security arrangements.

The Congress and its allies called the strike from 9 a.m. against the rising prices of petrol and diesel along with the depreciating rupee, the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist)-led Left Front too called the strike starting from 6 a.m. on the same issue.

However, it was business as usual in the city and suburbs where thousands of office goers hit the streets as the day progressed. The districts also remained largely active barring stray incidents in some places like Howrah district’s Dasnagar industrial area where the strike supporters tried to put up road blockades and clashed with the police.

Banks, educational institutions including schools and colleges mostly remained open while trading activities at Burrabazar in the city were more or less normal.

According to a state official, the attendance at the state secretariat Nabanna was over 95 per cent and overall attendance in state government offices was 97 per cent.

Train services in Eastern and South-Eastern Railways were largely normal though the Left Front supporters tried to block the rail tracks in Hooghly district’s Sreerampore, Kolkata’s Jadavpur station and Sealdah division’s Lakshmikantapur lines.

Additional police personnel have been deployed throughout the state to prevent any disruption or violence in connection with the strike. However, the Left Front and the Congress took out rallies in some places in support of the strike.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state supported the issues on which the shut down has been called, but opposed the strike in the state in line with the party’s stated policy against any kind of strikes.

State Minister and Trinamool’s Secretary General Partha Chatterjee had said that the government would take all measures to maintain public utility services.

State-run transport corporations are running more buses than usual to ensure that commuters are not inconvenienced, a state official said.

A special arrangement has been made with a nationalised insurance company to extend insurance benefits of up to Rs 75,000 to the owner of any vehicle, damaged by miscreants on Monday, a state official said.

The owner of the vehicle would have to file a complaint within 12 hours of the incident and will be reimbursed within 72 hours, the officer added.

(IANS)

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday announced a boycott of the upcoming municipal and Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir and asked the government to review its decision to hold elections amid an atmosphere of insecurity.

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said there was a sense of insecurity among the people of the state with the “sword of Article 35A dangling on our heads”. She said the party had unanimously decided to stay away from the electoral exercise.

“The party urges the government to review its decision to hold local body elections at this time against the will of the people and instead focus on confidence-building measures,” the former Chief Minister told reporters here after meeting her party leaders and MLAs.

“Our Party will not contest the polls as the prevailing situation is not favourable for such an exercise.

“The government is not keen on defending 35-A and insecurity has crept in the population. The party therefore urges the government to review its decision to hold polls at this time”.

A dissident PDP MLA, Javaid Beigh, who represents Baramulla Assembly, was present at the meeting chaired by Mehbooba Mufti.

But five other PDP MLAs including Haseeb Drabu, Imran Ansari, Abid Ansari, Abdul Majeed Padder and Abbas Wani did not attend the meeting.

The National Conference has already announced a boycott of the elections.

Governor Satya Pal Malik has announced that the elections to urban local bodies in the state will be held between October 1 and 5 and to the Panchayats between November 8 and December 4.

Article 35A of the Constitution prohibits outsiders from owning land and property in Jammu and Kashmir.

Urging the opposition to unite in their shared desire to defeat the BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday hit out at the Modi government for the crises-like all-round situation in the country due to rising fuel prices and farm distress.

Manmohan Singh said the BJP-led central government had “miserably” failed in controlling fuel prices and fulfilling the promises made to the people before the 2014 elections.

“Circumstances show that the situation has gone beyond control now. Farmers, businessmen, youth are facing crises in their respective fields. The government has failed miserably in fulfilling the promises made to common people.

“The time has come to change the party in the Centre and this will happen very soon,” he said, addressing a protest rally at the Ramlila ground here.

“The parties opposing the present government should forget their differences and come together for maintaining the unity and secular identity of the country. We need to draw the collective benefit of the unity shown (here),” he said.

The former Prime Minister along with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi joined the protest march that started from Rajghat and culminated at Ramlila ground.

The march as part of a nationwide protest, or “Bharat Bandh”, was led by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders.

The former Prime Minister appreciated the presence of around 20 political opposition parties joining the Congress in the protest against the government.

He said it was a significant moment ahead of the general elections next year and “we should take advantage of this (unity) and bring about a movement” in the country.

The protest was called by the Congress and Left parties against the spiralling cost of petrol and diesel which have reached record levels.

The protest was supported by several opposition parties including the Janata Dal-Secular, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Loktantrik Janata Dal, Rashtriya Lok Dal, All India United Democratic Front, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Aam Aadmi Party among others.

(IANS)