BJP workers court arrest statewide

Chandigarh, June 22
Thousands of BJP leaders and workers courted arrest in different parts of the state today to protest against the fuel hike by the Union Government. The call for ‘Jail Bharo’ was given by the party high command.

Reports from different parts of the state said the protests were massive, but peaceful. Senior state BJP leaders courted arrest in different parts of the state. According to BJP’s state media in charge, Vineet Joshi, party’s national vice-president and former Union Minister Shanta Kumar courted arrest in Jalandhar with party’s spokesman Manoranjan Kalia, 19 municipal councillors and thousands of party workers.

Similarly, BJPs national leader and MP Balbir Punj courted arrest with MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, district president Anand Sharma, 24 municipal councillors, Yuva Morcha’s state president Rajesh Honey and workers at Amritsar, while BJP’s state president Ashwani Sharma was arrested with about 5,000 workers at Pathankot.

Joshi stated that before the arrest, while addressing the workers, Shanta Kumar said the Central government was claiming that fuel hike was due to hike in crude oil prices globally. “India is not the only country which imports crude oil. Rather, all countries in the world get crude oil supply. Despite this, petrol costs Rs 59 per litre in Pakistan, Rs 61.70 in Sri Lanka, Rs 43.40 in Bangladesh, Rs 53.70 in the USA and Rs 50.20 in Russia. In such a situation, only India is the country where petrol is priced at Rs 76.53. This means the fuel prices are not dependent on international market,” he said.

In Amritsar, Balbir Punj said after petrol, the Union government was planning to increase the prices of diesel, LPG and kerosene.

Addressing the workers before courting arrest, state BJP chief Ashwani Sharma said, “It is true that prices of crude oil have increased in the international market. However, the burden can be reduced by adjusting import duty and excise duty. Instead of doing this, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee appears to be interested in getting more revenue because of the price hike in crude oil. The government can adopt a 'revenue-neutral' policy and pass on the additional revenue to consumers by reducing the prices. We had done accordingly during the regime of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee."

Others who courted arrested included state general secretary Kamal Sharma in Ludhiana, state general secretary Manjit Singh Rai in Bathinda, Rajya Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna in Sangrur, former minister Balramji Dass Tandon in Patiala, former minister Tikshan Sud in Hoshiarpur, former state president Prof Brij Lal Rinwa in Ferozepur, former minister Arunesh Shakar in Gurdaspur and former minister Master Mohan Lal in Kapurthala.