PANAJI
Announcing that the Congress will hit the streets to protest on Wednesday, former Union finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday termed the Centre's move to further hike fuel prices and cooking gas for commercial users as "blood-sucking" and shameful on the eve of Diwali with no economic justification.
Chidambaram, who is the senior observer in-charge of the Congress' election bid for 2022, said at a press conference in the capital city that it was surprising the Centre hiked prices on Diwali eve.
The former Union finance minister said the Centre "unexpectedly" has increased prices once again.
"Unexpectedly because I thought on the eve of Diwali they wouldn't do it," he said, adding that as of Sunday night, petrol prices were Rs 115 in Mumbai and 120 in some places in Rajasthan.
In Goa, petrol is Rs 106, Chidambaram said, adding that diesel too has crossed the 100-mark.
Calling it blood-sucking, Chidambaram further said: "The Modi government has decided that we are sucking blood anyway, so why should we draw blood in drops. Let us draw large quantities of blood. What they've done and what they are doing is squeezing every Indian citizen, rich and poor, and the poor of course suffer the most by these exorbitant, unconscionable and condemnable price hikes."
He also argued that the high taxation of fuel by the Centre was ridiculous saying 33% tax on a single commodity is madness and is higher than corporate tax.
He said, the Congress in Goa will protest against the high fuel and LPG prices on Wednesday.
Responding to queries posed by journalists, Chidambaram dismissed West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's view of fighting the BJP parochial and from a Bengal lens.
Asked to comment on Banerjee's charge that the Congress is indecisive on taking a call on alliances with regional parties and this was making Modi powerful, Chidambaram said she may have won a tough battle against the BJP in Bengal but it is the Congress which is fighting Narendra Modi in Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Assam.
"She is looking at it from the Bengal lens," Chidambaram said, adding that if you look at all India, the party that is at the forefront against Narendra Modi, fighting, tweeting, addressing press conferences, agitations is the Congress.
