Centre insensitive to pain of common people, says Congress ahead of Delhi rally against price rise

The Congress on Saturday accused the Centre of being "insensitive" to the pain of the common people due to rising prices and said it will continue fighting for their cause on the streets as the principal opposition.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the Congress party has been protesting against the price rise and rising unemployment. On August 5, all the Congress MPs and senior leaders held a demonstration over the issue of back-breaking price rise and all the leaders and workers were detained.

Speaking with the media ahead of the 'Mehngai par halla bol' rally of the party at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on Sunday, General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal hit out at the Modi government for its "wrong policies" and said that the government was busy "buying MLAs" and toppling Opposition governments.

"This government is totally insensitive. You can compare the prices, from 2014 to 2022, how the prices of essential commodities have shot up," said Venugopal, flanked by Congress general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and Ajay Maken at the Ramlila Maidan.

The Congress has been raising the issue on the streets, protested with a Black Day in August when several leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, courted arrest, and also pressed for a debate in Parliament on the issue of price rise, he said.

"You can feel the pain of the common people due to the insensitivity and bad policies of the union government... The government is not bothered and is only busy buying MLAs and toppling Opposition governments," he alleged.

The Congress as a principal, responsible Opposition of the country has taken to the streets against price rise, Venugopal said.

Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said that the government was only concerned about "benefiting its crony capitalist friends and not the common people". He said that if you look at the last 8 years of Modi government's tenure, you will find that no tax has been reduced the burden on common man has not been reduced but only corporate tax and corporation tax have been reduced.

He slammed the government for the high cost of petrol and diesel and its spiral effect on prices of other commodities.

Citing the government's own data, Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil emphasised that price rise has doubled within a year in 2022.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of party leaders would address the rally on Sunday. Party workers from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, besides other parts of the country, are converging for the event.

The rally comes ahead of the opposition party's 3,500-km 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Kanyakumari to Kashmir starting September 7, where Rahul Gandhi will walk across the country highlighting the issues of price rice and unemployment, and promoting communal harmony.

The 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is being looked at as the Congress party's biggest ever mass contact programme, where the party leaders will reach out to the common people at the grassroots level.

With PTI inputs