Jail bharo agitation: BJP leaders to court arrest tomorrow

NEW DELHI: BJP will launch a one-day jail bharo agitation tomorrow across the country during which party leaders and workers will court arrest to protest against the hike in prices of essential commodities and petrol products.

BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said in a statement that June 22 will mark the culmination of the 'Jan Sangarsh Abhiyan (Public Struggle Campaign)', which began on June 7.

The party had organised public meetings, protests and street marches in different parts of the country during this period to create awareness about these issues.

"All national and state leaders of the BJP will participate in the Jail Bharo Andolan along with party workers and people from every section of society," Naqvi said.

He charged that while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is leading a "corrupt" government, Congress President Sonia Gandhi is protecting the corrupt.

"They both are encouraging corruption under the garb of honesty, in the eight years of the UPA government, scams and corruption has broken all records," he said.

BJP alleged that despite record production of crops in the last eight years, prices of essential commodities have been constantly on the rise.

"The import of crude oil is about 85 per cent of the present (consumption). However, during the NDA regime, it was 65 to 70 per cent because we focused on alternate sources like piped gas, bio-diesel and ethanol," Naqvi said.

Among top BJP leaders who will participate in the jail bharo andolan tomorrow include party president Nitin Gadkari at Nagpur, M Venkaiah Naidu in Mumbai, Gopinath Munde in Maharashtra, Sushma Swaraj in Bhopal, Narendra Singh Tomar in Madhya Pradesh, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in Delhi along with other leaders.