Karnataka Congress leaders including state president DK Shivakumar and the leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah were reportedly arrested by the police on Friday for protesting against the fuel price hike. A party official in his statement said that police arrested Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah and other leaders of the party for staging a protest against the hike in petrol prices at a petrol station in Bengaluru. After the hike on Friday, petrol cost Rs 99.33 per litre and diesel cost Rs 92.21 per litre.
As a part of their nationwide five-day protests #100NotOut Campaign, the party’s leaders, lawmakers and cadres staged a protest at about 800 petrol stations across Karnataka criticising the state and Union governments for the steep fuel price hike. The protest was staged when the state was under lockdown with nearly 11 districts still reporting test positivity rate over 11%.
Members of the party's frontal wings, including Youth Congress, Mahila Congress, Kisan Congress, National Student Union of India (NSUI) and Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) participated in the state-wide protest.
The party asserted that the BJP-led NDA government had raised fuel prices nearly 48 times across the country since January despite citizens feeling the pinch from inflation. The Union Government has collected a whopping Rs 20.6 lakh crore by raising the sales tax, excise duty, surcharge and cess on petrol and diesel over the last seven years, the party claimed.
Shivakumar said that it was the opposition’s duty to educate the masses about the exploitative ways of the government and said that petrol would cost Rs 120 per litre in 2022, Rs 160 in 2023 and Rs 200 in 2024 observing the current rate of increase in fuel prices. He also urged people to join the protest through a tweet asking them to speak out before it is “too late”.
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also said that the government was being insensitive by increasing fuel prices as the people are reeling under hardships due to the pandemic. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is deceiving people by giving false information," said Siddaramaiah.
The state-run oil marketing firms have cumulatively increased the retail price of petrol by Rs 25.72 per litre and diesel by Rs 23.93 per litre over the weeks amid the pandemic's second wave across the country. Fuel price hikes resumed after the polls in West Bengal ended.
The party said it will hold protests at taluk level on Saturday, at hoblis on Sunday, in gram panchayats on Monday and other places on Tuesday.