BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Sunday held the UPA government "responsible" for spiralling prices of commodities and demanded it come out with a 'white paper' on the matter. "The wrong economic policies and bad governance had led to the overall price hike of all commodities," Gadkari told reporters here on his maiden visit to Tamil Nadu.
The BJP leader claimed that the current inflation rate in India (over 11 per cent) is the highest in the world. Citing a study, he said inflation in China was 2.7 per cent, in US 2.6 per cent, South Korea 2.7 per cent, Europe 0.9 per cent, Malaysia 1.3 per cent and Singapore 0.2 per cent. "Let there be open debate and people know the chaos and corruption in the Congress government which has resulted in 'hyper' inflation and 'hyper' food inflation'," he said.
BJP would take out a rally at New Delhi on April 21 to highlight and protest against the price hike. The party would then submit a petition signed by over 10 crore people (protesting the price rise) from across the country to President Pratibha Patil in May, he said. Referring to the naxal issue, he said the BJP did not want to politicise it. The BJP extended support to the UPA government in its fight against naxalities, he said.
Attributing farmers' suicide in various parts of the country to prevailing power and water shortage, he said the only solution to the problem was to link rivers and as a first step, the Ganga and Cauvery should be linked. PTI
