Rahul Gandhi and Congress plan martyrs' salute on June 26; fuel price dharna on June 29

Continuing his attack on the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary KC Venugopal held a video conference with party's state presidents on Wednesday to discuss a range of issues such as tensions with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the situation in the country due to COVID-19 pandemic and rising fuel prices.

It was decided in the meeting that Congress will hold a 'Salute to the Martyrs' programme across the country on June 26 while the will stage sit-in-protests (dharna) at all district headquarters across the country on June 29 to protest the rising prices of Diesel and Petrol across the country.

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As per reports, Rahul Gandhi and interim party president Sonia Gandhi are also expected to be a part of the programme to be held on June 26. Although the venue is not finalised, the program is expected to be held in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue inside the Parliament premises. A meeting is to be held by Delhi Congress on Thursday to fix the venue for the programme.

Rahul Gandhi has directed all state presidents to come up with the failures of the Centre and come out hard against the Prime Minister regarding the economic situation in the country as well as on the COVID-19 crisis. He said the Prime Minister's "attitude is responsible for the current situation of the country as he did not take any problem seriously and decisions were not taken on time". Speaking on the Indo-China conflict, he said, "Our foreign policy has completely collapsed". On Wednesday, he took to Twitter to target the government over its response to COVID-19.

Hike in fuel prices and politics surround it

Diesel price on Sunday hit a fresh record high after rates were hiked by 60 paise per litre while petrol price was up 35 paise, taking the cumulative increase in rates in 15 days to Rs 8.88 a litre and Rs 7.97 respectively.

Meanwhile, price of petrol in the national capital was hiked to Rs 79.23 per litre from Rs 78.88, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 78.27 a litre from Rs 77.67, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.

Sonia Gandhi had written a letter to PM Modi in connection with the rising prices of petrol and diesel urging him to intervene and roll back the hike in prices. BJP national President JP Nadda has hit out at Sonia Gandhi for the letter for not reducing the prices in Congress-ruled states but instead asking PM Modi to roll back. 

"Sonia Gandhi said that we have increased petrol prices. She wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to roll back recent fuel price hikes. She did not ask Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan chief Ministers to rollback the prices. Is this the way of politics? Your Chief Ministers have increased the price of petrol in their states. They are not abiding by your suggestions. You are writing to PM Modi," said JP Nadda while addressing BJP's Uttar Pradesh Jan Samvad digital rally.

(With ANI inputs)

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