Cong leaders hit the streets in Bihar over fuel price rise

The Congress in Bihar on Monday staged a protest here against the spiralling petrol and diesel prices, with top leaders riding bicycles and hand-driven carts in a procession, and party workers carrying banners inscribed with slogans attacking the BJP government at the Centre.

The Congress in Bihar on Monday staged a protest here against the spiralling petrol and diesel prices, with top leaders riding bicycles and hand-driven carts in a procession, and party workers carrying banners inscribed with slogans attacking the BJP government at the Centre. As part of the nationwide stir, Congress workers, led by the partys state unit chief Madan Mohan Jha, former Union minister Tariq Anwar and working presidents Kaukab Qadri and Shyam Sundar Singh Dheeraj, gathered at the Boring Canal Road crossing in the morning.

They then proceeded towards the Dak Bungalow Chauraha, about two kilometres away, riding bicycles or walking on foot, in a gesture aimed at suggesting that petrol and diesel were becoming ill-affordable, making it difficult for people to drive their motor vehicles. 'Thelas' (hand-driven carts) fixed with contraptions to make these look like chariots were also pressed into service and the party bigwigs took turns to ride the carts which made them visible from a distance to the foot-soldiers, whom the leaders egged on to follow.

In keeping with the tradition of colorful slogans that have been a hallmark of politics in Bihar, some of the party workers were seen carrying posters with a diagram of a petrol pump, titled 'Deen Dayal Upadhyay Lootpaat Kendra'. The slogan aimed to kill two birds with a stone -- asserting that petrol and diesel prices had become exorbitant, besides lampooning the Narendra Modi government which has renamed many institutions after RSS ideologues.

We derive no pleasure out of abusing late Sangh Parivar leaders. But we are filled with disgust over the manner in which the current dispensations top brass routinely hits our top leaders below the belt," the Congress workers told reporters who approached them with queries. No untoward incident took place during the procession which ended with senior leaders handing over a memorandum, addressed to the President, to the District Magistrate.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)