CHENNAI: The Bharatiya Janata Party will begin its week-long "Save Doda" agitation on Wednesday in Jammu to protest against the recent terrorist attacks in Doda and other parts of the State.

Senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu will lead the first batch of "satyagrahis" consisting of representatives from Kerala and Rajasthan. L. Ganesan, national vice-president and "prabhari" (in-charge) for Kerala, will participate.

Stop exodus

Before leaving for New Delhi on his way to Jammu, Mr. Naidu told presspersons here on Tuesday that the Centre should take steps to stop the "exodus of Hindu Pandits" and `ethnic cleansing.' It should provide greater security to the people, supply arms and ammunition to village defence committees, and strengthen the Army by equipping it with modern weapons.

On the final day of the agitation, representatives of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP would take part in the "satyagraha" and the State unit president C.P. Radhakrishnan and the former Union Minister S. Thirunavukkarasar would be among them.

Hike in petroleum prices

Criticising the Government for the increase in the prices of petroleum products, Mr. Naidu called the move an "onslaught on the common man," for whom the Congress had promised much in the run-up to the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Stressing that the hike would have a cascading effect, the BJP leader said the State transport corporations would be under "heavy stress" to maintain their operations at the present level of the fare structure. Agriculturists who were using diesel for their pump sets would find it hard to absorb the increase.

He wondered why the Congress had not restructured taxes to avoid increasing the prices, as it had suggested when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was in power.

PDS price hike

Criticising the Centre's move to increase the issue price of wheat and rice in the Public Distribution System and reduce allocation to beneficiaries, Mr. Naidu recalled that the foodgrain quota was increased from 18 kg to 35 kg a month during the NDA regime.

He said there was no need for the Communist parties to organise massive protest programmes against the moves of the Centre as the parties were supporting the Government.

"It will be enough if they go to two streets — 7 Race Course Road [the Prime Minister's residence] and 10 Janpath [Congress president Sonia Gandhi's residence] — and tell them that their decisions are not acceptable."

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