Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday said that Pakistan is attacking India’s soldiers and has violated the ceasefire 3000 times in the last 52 months but the Narendra Modi government has failed in giving a befitting response to the neighbouring country.
Addressing a ‘Shaheed Samman Samaroh’ at Kanina (Mahendergarh), Surjewala said that Modi is maintaining a ‘stoic silence on inhuman mutilation of Indian soldiers’.
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He said, first Mandeep and now Narendra Singh has been tortured, tormented and murdered by Pakistan but the Prime Minister has not uttered even a word on Pakistan’s inhuman mutilation of Indian soldiers.
Quoting official figures, Surjewala said that as many as 411 soldiers have been martyred in Jammu and Kashmir only, while 256 civilians have lost their lives in terrorist attacks during the last 52 months.
Surjewala blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre and the state for the sky rocketing prices of petrol and diesel.
During the last 52 months, the BJP has increased the central excise duty 11 times on petrol. The diesel was Rs 55.49 per litre on 16 May, 2014, when Modi became the Prime Minister and the same has shot up to Rs 74.75 per litre, despite the much reduced rates of international crude oil, he said. Similarly, the price of petrol has risen to Rs 82.96 per litre from Rs 71 on 16 May, 2014.
The state BJP government increased the VAT burden by more than five times. While VAT on petrol has been increased from 21 per cent to 26.25 per cent, the government has almost doubled the VAT on diesel from 9.24 per cent to 17.22 per cent, the Congress legislator from Kaithal said.