The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today claimed that the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by the NDA and other parties today in protest against the hike in diesel prices and permitting FDI in multi-brand retail by the Centre, was a grand success. Addressing a press conference here, its senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu said ‘it was a people’s bandh’ called keeping in mind their interest.
The Manmohan Singh government was adopting ‘anti-people’ policies, he alleged. He said it was surprising Ministers representing the UPA government and parties had supported it and participated in the bandh.
Even parties representing the Union Cabinet like DMK had supported the bandh, came on to the streets and courted arrest. Stating that the reforms being introduced by the UPA government should not be ‘anti-people,’ he said they must be positive as no country can affored to have negative reforms. The former BJP National President said the NDA government had slashed the interest rates from 16 to per cent and added if there was an increase in the diesel prices on the pretext of cess, that amount was used for developing highways and roads. But in the UPA regime, reforms were only imposing a burden on the people. UNI