New Delhi [India] : Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday announced that the party’s top body has decided to hold a nationwide protest in the country against fuel price rise. Addressing a press conference after the meeting of CPI (M)’s Central Committee from October 22-24, Yechury said that they strongly condemned the daily hikes in the prices of petrol and diesel, and said, “The Central Committee calls for a powerful all-India protest, as an action against this price rise. These actions should be conducted all over the countiy from the village/taluka level to the cities.” “The daily price hikes are imposing unprecedented miseries on the people. This is accompanied by a monstrous hike in the price of cooking gas. This has triggered an overall inflationary spiral in the economy. Rising transportation costs are leading to the rise in prices of all essential items including food, vegetables, milk and other articles of daily consumption,” he added. Yechury called the claims of the Centre of using the amount collected from the hike of Central excise duties on petroleum products for financing the COVID-19 vaccinations and various social sector schemes being implemented by the Modi government as “ridiculous”. “If people are paying exorbitant prices (as taxes), then vaccinations are not free. People are paying for it themselves. What has happened to the budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crores for vaccinations?” he questioned. The former Rajya Sabha MP also hit out on the Modi government for the recent civilian killing in Jammu and Kashmir and said, “The Union Home Minister (Amit Shah) visited Jammu and Kashmir under massive military fortification, detaining hundreds of people. He made preposterous claims that with the abrogation of Article 370 and dissolution of the erstwhile state of J-K, the situation has improved.” “The recent spate of targeted killings of civilians has created a situation drawing parallels to what prevailed in the 1990s. This is alarming. Unless people’s participation in the restoration of the democratic political process is established, it would be difficult to combat this rising extremist violence,” he added. Yechury, speaking for the Central Committee, also demanded immediate restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and release of all political detainees, while also ending the curbs on media and stopping the indiscriminate arrests of people, particularly the youth in Jammu and Kashmir.
