BJP demands white paper on price hike

Dehra Dun, June 26: The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a white paper from the Congress-led UPA government on the steep price hike of essential and non-essential commodities.

Addressing media personnel here today, BJP president Rajnath Singh said ''in two years, the fuel price had been hiked seven times, subsequently increasing the prices of other essential commodities and augmenting the rate of inflation.'' He demanded the UPA government issue a white paper on price hike.

Mr Singh said the UPA government is redifining poverty on religious basis. ''There should be no allocation of funds and reservation on religious basis,'' he said and added India during the NDA regime was self-sufficient in foodgrains.

After the UPA government came to power, the situation was opposite. ''It was surplus country then, now it is a deficit country,'' he said.

The BJP president said until Pakistan closes the roughly 59 terrorist camps located in its country and stops proxy war with India, there was no point of having ''confidence building measures'' between the two countries.

Referring to Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf's statement advocating withdrawal of ''the Army from Kashmir and a joint government'', Mr Singh said India should in contrast deploy more security forces in the area as Pakistan can not be trusted.

''In places like Rajouri, Udhampur and Doda where terrorists are more active, Village Defence Committees should be formed and AK-47 rifles issued to the members,'' he said and added the UPA government has no clear cut policy on Kashmir.

Reprimanding the UPA government for ''lack of foreign policy'', said it always looks towards the Left for help in foreign matters,'' and added the ''Left parties are in fact running a proxy foreign policy.'' Lambasting the Congress government in Uttaranchal, the BJP president said it has failed to take advantage of the state's natural resources to the fullest.

''The UPA in the Centre and Congress in Uttaranchal should be prepared to exit from power,'' he said talking of the possibility of a mid-term poll at the Centre.

UNI