New Delhi, Sept 20: The Left and the Right were on the same page today with its leaders sharing stage to protest the UPA government's decision to allow FDI in retail and hike in diesel price with both alleging that these were taken to “please” US President Barack Obama and other western nations.
While Left leaders A B Bardhan and Sitaram Yechury shared the stage with BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi and Nitin Gadkari at a protest organised by traders, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu kept away from it but appeared at a Left protest rally and courted arrest along with others.
Yadav attacked the government for its “anti-poor” policies and claimed farmers were the “worst-affected lot” due to hike in diesel price.
Yards away, A B Bardhan, Sitaram Yechury, Murli Manohar Joshi, Nitin Gadkari and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav slammed the government's economic policies calling them “anti-people and anti-national” while attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being hell-bent on “pleasing his friend” Obama.
Bardhan said ideologies of the Left and the BJP might be different, but they “are one” when it came to fighting for the people and even complimented Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee for deciding to pull out her ministers from the Union Cabinet.
While Bardhan said Dr Singh was trying to “please” Mr Obama, Joshi was more vocal in his criticism when he alleged that the Congress was trying to make traders and people “slaves” of US and other western countries.
The protest was organised by traders' organisations supportive of BJP at Jantar Mantar here.
After attending the protest by traders, Yechury and Bardhan moved towards the demonstration organised jointly by Left parties, SP, JD(S), BJD and TDP as part of the nationwide bandh.
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who attended the joint protest by the parties, however did not attend the traders' protest.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Left leaders Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan courted arrest during the nation-wide bandh against FDI in retail and diesel price hike.
After holding a joint demonstration at Jantar Mantar, the leaders of SP, four Left parties, JD(S), TDP and BJD marched to Parliament Street Police Station along with supporters and courted arrest.
Besides Yadav, Karat (CPM)and Bardhan (CPI), other prominent leaders who courted arrested included Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Chandrababu Naidu of TDP and Deve Gowda.
”The government has been coming out with policies after policies that affect people of this country. The biggest loser of these policies especially diesel price hike is farmers. Farmers have been put to lot of trouble.
”We will tour the entire nation and listen to people's grievances and decide our strategy,” Yadav said addressing the protesters.
Karat alleged the government came out with the FDI decision to “rob the jobs of traders and give it to companies like Walmart”.
