Patna

Patna:

Hundreds of thousands of Communist sympathizers in Bihar on Thursday courted arrest during the day-long 'fill the jail' campaign sponsored by more than half a dozen left parties including the Communist Party of India (M), Forward Bloc, and Communist Party of India to protest against the rising prices of essential items in the nation.
The rally was led by the CPI-M politburo member Vrinda Karat, CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjan, and Forward Bloc leader Narhari Mahto.
"If the Center does not change its economic policies soon, we will broaden our stir in other parts of the country," Karat, a devout Communist who believes it was the government's job to support an individual from cradle to grave with no personal responsibility of the individual, said before being arrested by the Patna police.
As all other rallies in Patna, the 'Lal Salam' activists waving red flags and chanting anti-government slogans began their march from the Gandhi Maidan and after disrupting traffic on Frazer Road arrived at the ever-popular Dak Bungalow Crossing where they willingly offered their arrest as long as cameramen from various news outlets were at an arm's distance.
Anjan took the Central government to task saying the dramatic rise in the petroleum products were the result of the government being in the pocket of the private petroleum companies.
"The Central government is only concerned with the welfare of the large private companies that fill the coffer of the politicians. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asks others to suggest ways to check prices of food and other essential items but it is clear he has no intention to follow up on these suggestions," Anjan said.
Karat, who was in no mood to exonerate the NDA government in Bihar on the price issue, accused the Nitish administration of encouraging black-marketers and hoarders by creating an artificial shortage of food-grains so they could jack up the prices manifold.