Sonia to hold rally on Dec 12 in Delhi

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will address a public rally on December 12 as part of her party's drive against price rise and inflation. The Congress president and the party have decided to draw the country's attention to price rise and inflation' by holding a massive "Mehngai Hatao rally" in Delhi on December 12, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said.

The rally will be addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders from across the country. "It will give a decisive warning to the present Modi Government to stop its loot and reduce the backbreaking prices. We shall continue our struggle until the Modi Government backs down," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said "Modi and 'Mehngai' have become the bane of people's lives" and the unprecedented price rise and inflation have demolished the earnings, the household income and budget of every family in the country.

He said the people of India are suffering unbearable cruelty and untold misery on account of the BJP government-driven price rise and inflation.

The budget of every household bleeds, even minimum nutrition suffers and people are finding it difficult to buy and consume day-to-day food articles as also other



consumables, he alleged. "The Modi government remains oblivious to this insurmountable pain and suffering of people. Backed by a section of the electronic media, the only solution offered by Modi government is a divisive religious discourse or sporadic diversionary statements to reset the agenda from fundamental issues affecting the lives of the people," he said in the statement.

The Congress has been protesting on the issue of price rise and inflation and have called for a check on them. The Congress leader said the real issues affecting the people of India are the backbreaking prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, which have had a spiralling effect on the prices of all foods and other consumable items.

He said every home is affected by the merciless rise in prices of cooking oil, pulses and other food items and it is perhaps for the first time, price of tomato has surpassed the price of petrol and diesel in India. He also alleged that price of construction material such as cement, iron and steel has seen a rise of nearly 40 per cent to 50 per cent "Everything is gradually going out of the reach of the common man. Modi government either remains indifferent to the woes and agony of ordinary Indian or mocks it on other occasions," he alleged