Leaders of the BJP-led NDA on Sunday chalked out the strategy for a nation-wide strike on Monday to protest the government?s ?failure? to control price rise. ?This may be the first time in the history of Indian politics that almost all political parties will participate in the Bharat Bandh,? NDA working chairperson LK Advani said. Though Left parties have given a call for a Bharat Bandh separately, the RJD and LJP and some smaller parties will not participate.
Referring to an advertisement in newspapers by the petroleum ministry claiming that a strike would not bring down prices of petroleum products, Advani said, ?Even we do not claim that prices will come down due to Bharat Bandh… Solution lies in the hands of the government. Unfortunately, there is no indication that it has a solution.? He alleged that the government had become ?insensitive? to the issue of price rise. ?Despite so much increase in food prices, the government has increased the prices of petroleum products,? he said.
Meanwhile, oil minister Murli Deora said the Bandh was unjustified as the price hike will have minimal impact on the common man. ?This is nothing but misleading the people, as these parties have been instrumental in notifying the deregulation of prices of petroleum goods and reducing subsidies in November, 1997, and in implementing the programme from April, 2002.?