This Article is From Jun 24, 2020

Digvijaya Singh's Cycle Protest Against Fuel Price Hike

Digvijaya Singh, who was joined by a number of party workers, rode the cycle for about 1 Kilometre from Bhopal's Roshanpura intersection to the Chief Minister's residence.

Digvijaya Singh's Cycle Protest Against Fuel Price Hike

Digvijaya Singh took out the march from Bhopal's Roshanpura intersection to Chief Minister's residence.

Bhopal:

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday rode a bicycle to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's residence in Bhopal to protest against the rising fuel prices.

Digvijaya Singh, who was joined by a number of party workers, rode the cycle for about 1 Kilometre from Bhopal's Roshanpura intersection to the Chief Minister's residence.

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said that the ruling BJP in state and the centre sees coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to earn money.

"Today, when people are getting infected with COVID-19. Inflation is increasing and people are dying of hunger. The Central government has increased excise duty on petrol and diesel for the eighteenth consecutive day," Mr Singh said.

"As Modi ji says, opportunity in disaster, for them (Centre) corona disaster is an opportunity to earn the money," he added.

Digvijaya Singh's cycle ride was a part statewide protests called by Congress against the rise in petrol-diesel price on Wednesday.

Party's state unit chief Kamal Nath had asked all district and block-level members to participate in the march.

Apart from Mr Singh, a number of senior leaders, including former minister Jeetu Patwari, rode a bicycle in Indore.

Reacting to the protest, Home Minister Narrotam Mishra termed the protest by Congress leaders as a political stunt.  

"Digvijay Singh should apologise first, they have said they will reduce petrol prices by 5 Rs in their Vachan Patra (manifesto), but increased the price by Rs 2 and spent the money on Jacquiline and Salman, we will use the same for Fighting Corona," the BJP leader said.

Congress has been attacking the government over the hike in petrol and diesel prices continuously for 18 days, after the lockdown restrictions were relaxed.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also attacked the government on the increase in fuel prices and the rise in coronavirus cases.

He drew on the phrase "Unlock1" used to describe the phased exit from the three-month virus lockdown.

"The Modi government has 'unlocked' the corona pandemic and prices of petrol-diesel," Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

The Congress MP tagged a graph with the tweet and captioned it, "coronavirus is not the only rising curve".

The graph illustrated a steady rise in the daily COVID-19 count and the climbing prices of petrol and diesel after the lockdown.

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