Swaraj

New Delhi, April 18: The BJP today set up a committee to organise a nationwide agitation against price rise, worried that previously announced protests on the issue had failed to take off.

The committee will be made up by Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Vijay Goel, Balbir Punj, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar. To draft the National Democratic Alliance in, a meeting has been called on April 21.

Today’s meeting, chaired by party president Rajnath Singh, adopted a resolution blaming the Centre’s alleged mismanagement for the price rise.

The decision comes after the BJP cut a sorry figure in Parliament on Wednesday with most of its members staying away from the House as it discussed inflation.

In the Lok Sabha, the presence of BJP members ranged from two to nine. Even those fielded by the party to speak in the two Houses failed to make an impact.

Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, who had made a long speech on the issue at a BJP parliamentary party meeting, kept away from the House that day.

Some party members, on the other hand, accused traders — who form the backbone of the BJP’s support base — of deliberately hoarding foodstuff to jack up prices.

Today’s resolution tried to corner the government by providing a comparison of current prices with those during the NDA’s tenure. It also alleged that Union ministers were speaking in different voices and working at cross-purposes on price rise.

The party, so far fighting through media releases, today threatened to take the battle to the streets and cap it by ousting the government if prices were not brought down immediately.

A decision was taken to hold kisan adalats (farmer courts) across the country from May 1 to June 15 to highlight the misery of farmers despite the loan waiver scheme. The party also decided to observe the 150th year of the 1857 War of Independence in May.

The meeting discussed issues such as the Students Islamic Movement of India’s “subversive designs”, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s demand for the introduction of the Pakistani currency in Jammu and Kashmir, religious conversions and the Centre’s “soft” Tibet policy.

The resolution said Mufti was speaking the language of separatists and asked the Congress whether it considered such views treason or not.