Left threatens protests against petro price hike

Adopting an aggressive posture, Left parties today warned the UPA government not to hike petro product prices for the fifth time during its tenure and threatened a nationwide protest action involving non-Congress and non-BLP parties to oppose any such move.

"If the government announces a hike in the prices of Petrol and Diesel, which is likely next week, then the Left parties and other organisations will come out spontaneously to oppose the move.

"We will contact other political parties and give a joint call for a nationwide protest action including a general strike," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said after a 90-minute meeting of the four left parties supporting the UPA from outside.

Maintaining that this would be the fifth time the UPA government would resort to hiking petroleum product prices, he said the Left has made out "a strong and effective case" against such increases and suggested a review of the taxation of petroleum products, including reducing customs and  excise duties.

However, the government has not paid heed to these suggestions and burdening the "already over-burdened people" due to rise in prices of essential commodities, Karat, who was accompanied by his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan, D Raja, forward bloc's Debabrata Biswas and G Devarajan and RSP's Abani Roy.