A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on fuel price hike, her son-in-law and businessman Robert Vadra registered his protests against fuel prices by riding a cycle to commute to his office.
Former party chief Rahul Gandhi too lashed out at the government in a tweet.
“While filling fuel in your car at the petrol pump, when you look at the fast rising meter, remember that the price of crude oil has not gone up but down. Petrol is 100 rupees / liter. The Modi government is doing a great job of emptying your pockets and giving it to ‘friends’!,” Mr. Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
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Instead of filling fuel at the pump, Mr. Vadra, however, chose to cycle his way from his house at Sujan Singh Park area to his office at Sukhdev Vihar in South Delhi.
“A long cycle ride from home to office on a Monday morning amidst a lot of traffic. I feel for the masses & understand what they must be going through daily due to petrol & diesel price hike. The government must roll back fuel prices,” Mr. Vadra tweeted on his handle.
Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh including former ministers Jitu Patwari and P.C. Sharma too used cycles to protest against the fuel.
On Sunday, Ms. Gandhi had written a three page letter to Prime Minister Modi in which she accused the government of “profiteering off people’s miseries”.
The Congress chief accused the Modi government of being “unreasonably over-zealous” in levying excessive excise duty that works out to be ₹33 on every litre of petrol and ₹32 on every litre of diesel, higher than the base price of these fuels.
“This is nothing short of extortion to cover up economic mismanagement. As the principal party in opposition, I urge upon you to follow ‘Raj Dharma’ and reduce fuel prices by partially rolling back excise duty,” she said.
