Left parties agitated over price rise, shelving of constitutional rights

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Feb 27, 2016 : Members of the district units of Left parties staged a dharna near the Clock Tower over the increase in prices of petroleum products and seeking protection of the Constitutional rights of citizens.

Addressing protestors, K. Shankar, member of the State Secretariat of Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that though the price of crude oil had fallen in the world markets for the last two years, the prices of petrol and diesel had been increased nearly nine times in the country during the same period.

The price of petrol had been increased by Rs. 11.77 per litre, while that of diesel had risen by Rs. 13.57 per litre during this time. This had also led to an increase in the fares of public transport. The prices of essential commodities had gone through the roof and people were finding it difficult to buy them.

 Shankar said that in order to divert the attention of the people from the failures of the Union government, the Sangh Parivar had decided to implement its divisive agenda. This was also being done with an eye on the forthcoming elections in some states. The Union government and the organisations of the Sangh Parivar had not even spared the institutions of higher education. This was best illustrated by the way the Union government was trying to muzzle the voice of the students of  JNU - Jawaharlal Nehru University. A false case of sedition had been slapped against the President of JNU Students Union Kanhaiya Kumar.

Earlier, it had bull-dozed the students of  FTII - Film and Television Institute of India to accept the actor Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman. Its lack of sensitivity was also seen in the way it handled the death of the researcher Rohith Vemula at the Central University in Hyderabad. Democratic forms of expressions such as voicing dissent were now being seen as “anti-national”, Shankar said.