BJP warns govt against any hike in fuel prices

New Delhi, Aug 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party today threatened to launch a nationwide stir if any hike is effected in prices of petroleum products or foodgrains.

Deploring Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's hint about such a possible hike in his speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day, the party said the common man was already suffering under the steep rise in prices of various commodities and any further hike would not be tolerated by the people of the country.

''We will launch a nation-wide agitation if the Government increases prices of petrol, gas, kerosene and foodgrains,'' BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

He flayed the Prime Minister for making such an announcement from the ramparts of the Red Fort from where it was expected that the Government would announce some relief.

He said it was wrong to say that the Government was forced to pass on the burden to the common man for paying more support price for wheat and rice to farmers. ''There was hardly any enhancement in the support price of the two commodities,'' Mr Malhotra said.

The Party, meanwhile, slammed the Left parties for having double standards on the Cola issue, saying there was a contradiction in its stand in West Bengal and Kerala.

While it had banned the sale of Coca Cola and Pepsi in Kerala, it had given the green signal in West Bengal even as the communists were maintaining anti-Cola stand in Parliament, Mr Malhotra said.

He said it was not the first time that the Left parties had taken diametrically opposite stands -- one for West Bengal and another for the rest of the country -- and referred to the manner in which it had deferred the proposed three-day strike by airport employees in West Bengal.

UNI

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