Jaitley lashes out at government on rising prices

Chandigarh, Nov 26: Questioning the economics of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP national general secretary and former Union Minister Arun Jaitley today said that on the one hand the producer of foodgrains was being paid less for his produce, on the other, the consumer has to pay hefty amounts for the grain he pruchased.

'' The farmer is not being paid adequately for his produce, the consumer is paying extra for what he pruchases from the market'', he said while addressing a joint election rally of the BJP, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Chandigarh Vikas Manch and Janata Party here today.

The rally coincided with the launch of the poll campaign of these parties for the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections to be held next month. Former Union minister Harmohan Dhawan who heads the Chandigarh Vikas Manch, SAD general secretary Capt Kamaljit Singh and former BJP MP from Chandigarh Satya Pal Jain were present on the occasion.

The BJP leader said it was rather unfortunate that during the reign of an economist-PM the country's economy was in doldrums.

The prices of all esstential commodities had sry-rocketed and there was no concerete policy to check this upward trend, he claimed.

While the price of crude oil in the global market had fallen, there was no check on the price of petroleum products in the country, he added. The ordinary man was being affected by this price rise, he said.

Describing the UPA-government as weak, Mr Jaitley said that this government had failed to take important decisions for the welfare of the nation. ''Perhaps it is because of the shadow cast by the Left parties on the UPA-government'', he added. While claiming the stature the PMO had fallen during the period of Dr Singh, the BJP leader said this was because there are three centres of power--the PM, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the Left parties.

Alleging that the UPA was adopting a 'soft' policy on issues of national security, he said that to appease ''a particular community'' the government was not adopting a tough posture to counter terrorism.

The government had failed to take up the issue of terrorism and terrorist training camps with the Pakistan government in a forceful manner, he claimed.

UNI