By IANS,
New Delhi : Around 1,000 Left activists and leaders including Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) Prakash Karat courted arrest here Thursday as part of a nationwide campaign against rising prices, Left sources said.
Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan, Forward Bloc chief Debabrata Biswas and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Abani Roy also offered themselves for arrest along with the activists on Parliament Street in the heart of the capital.
The Left parties have announced a one-day ‘jail bharo’ (fill the prisons) campaign to put pressure on the government to check rising prices of food and other essential commodities.
Shouting slogans against the government, the protesters tried to cross a police barricade to move towards parliament. But they were stopped about a kilometre away, near the Jantar Mantar observatory, and arrested.
Addressing the rallyists before they were arrested, Karat asked the government to strengthen the public distribution system, implement land reforms and provide more employment opportunities.
“A meeting of the leaders of Left parties and secular parties will be held April 12 to decide further course of action,” Karat said.
According to Left sources, around 25 lakh people are participating in mass picketing and court arrest programmes across the country Thursday.