Press Trust Of India
New Delhi: Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, Abani Roy and Debabrata Biswas on Tuesday courted arrest along with hundreds of supporters as part of protests against the recent hike in fuel prices by the UPA Government.
Terming the price hike as "unjustifiable and irrational", they demanded a total roll back urging the Government to rationalise the tax structure instead of putting the burden on the common man.
Before courting arrest, hundreds of activists of CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar as part of the nationwide agitations which began on Tuesday.
Addressing the gathering, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat criticised the move by Congress-led state governments to reduce state-level taxes on petrol and diesel to cushion the impact of the price hike.
He also said the Centre should first reduce taxes to make fuel cheaper instead of passing the entire burden on the states.
Karat said the hike in fuel price could have been avoided had the Government implemented the alternatives suggested by the Left parties, including slashing customs and excise duties on crude imports.
"We have also suggested that the oil cess fund, amounting to Rs 1,25,000 crore, could be converted into a price stabilisation fund so that entire burden of global crude price hike was not passed onto the consumers," he said.
Left parties have refused to reduce sales tax for petroleum products in states ruled by them even though Congress governments in Andhra Pradesh and Goa have announced such cuts and Delhi too is expected to follow suit.
Last week, the Government increased the prices of petrol by Rs four per litre and diesel by Rs two per litre to cut the losses of state-run oil marketing companies that have been hit by soaring global crude prices.
The Left parties, joined by regional forces like Samajwadi Party and Telugu Desam Party, today staged street protests to demand the roll back of the fuel price hike as the Communists said the UPA Government could not take their support for granted. Barring states ruled by the Left and Uttar Pradesh, where the ruling Samajwadi Party's workers stopped many trains and blocked highways at several places, the protests had little impact. Strikes by truckers against the price hike that coincided with the protests, however, affected transport services in Orissa, Tripura and Madhya Pradesh.

In Delhi, CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury and CPI's A B Bardhan courted arrest at the Parliament Street police station with a large number of Left activists. Leaders from the Samajwadi Party,Rashtriya Lok Dal and Janata Dal-Secular were also present. They said the protest was meant to mount pressure on the government to reverse its "anti-people" decision and the issue would be raised in the UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting on Wednesday. 

In West Bengal, the ruling Left Front organised sit-ins before the offices of oil PSUs. Normal life in Kerala, another Left-ruled state, was paralysed by a dawn-to-dusk strike called by trade unions. Shops and business establishments remained closed while attendance in government offices was thin. Over 5,000 Left activists, including CPI Secretary D Raja, were taken into custody across Tamil Nadu when they tried to picket Central Government offices and roads.