BENGALURU:The state Congress will stage statewide protests in every district starting from Thursday, according to AICC General Secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka KC Venugopal.
In its build-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress intends to play up the Rafale deal, demonetisation and fuel prices to attack the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre. And these agitations will mark the beginning of the Congress attack. The party has been demanding that the Union government set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the multi-crore Rafale deal, which the party deems to be a scam under the Modi government.
The party also hopes to derail the Modi government’s “clean governance” image by pushing the Rafale deal as a “scam of epic proportions” and demonetisation as a “failure for the common man but beneficial for the corporates”.
“We demand that the Union government form a JPC. If not, we will hold agitations from September 6-15 in all districts of Karnataka. Towards the end of September, we will hold a massive protest in Bengaluru against the Union government,” Venugopal said at a press conference on Sunday.
Setting the narrative of the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls, Venugopal said it will be a fight between the rich and the poor. The Congress raised questions on the lives lost during demonetisation and how ineffective the process has been in curbing black money, countering fake notes and controlling cross border terrorism.
“Demonetisation is the biggest fraud committed on the people of this country. The government wants to burden the common man with excise duty on fuel but wants to help corporates with deals like Rafale,” Venugopal said.
Accusing the government of misusing Central government agencies like the Income-Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate for “vindictive politics”, Venugopal said the same tactics will not help in the parliamentary polls.