1 paisa shocker: Congress to start 'tweet morcha' on June 2 against fuel price hike

Condemning the reduction of fuel prices by just 1 paisa per litre after 16 days of relentless price hike, the Congress in Mumbai today said it would launch a social media campaign on June 2 to express its anguish.

As a part of the online campaign, titled "Tweet Morcha", the opposition would mobilise people to post tweets to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the issue and suggest ways to reduce the fuel prices, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam told PTI today.

The campaign is aimed at rallying the people who are active on social media to put pressure on the central and Maharashtra governments to reduce the fuel prices, he said.

"The fuel prices are being increased for the last 16 days. Now, the petrol and diesel prices have been reduced by 1 paise. This is a cruel joke and we condemn it," he said.

Nirupam along with prominent 'twitteratis', including author Sucheta Dalal, will gather at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh office on June 2 and collectively start posting tweets to Fadnavis and Modi asking them to reduce the petrol and diesel prices, he said.

"We will also tweet on how fuel prices can be reduced. Maharashtra collects nearly 40 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol per litre. We will tweet to Fadnavis to reduce VAT on petrol," Nirupam said.

The Central Excise duty has been increased 211 per cent on petrol and 400 per cent on diesel in the last four years, he claimed.

"We will ask the prime minister to reduce the Excise on petrol. Similarly, we will also ask for removal of these two taxes on fuel and bring it under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is 28 per cent," the Congress leader said.

The opposition party will soon release 'hashtags' (used on social media to easily find messages with a specific theme or content) for people from across the country and the world who are active on twitter to tweet posts seeking reduction in fuel prices, he said.

"Recently, we were out on streets to protest the fuel hike. But, there are people who prefer to comment online rather than taking to streets. This is our endeavour to mobilise this section of the society," Nirupam said.

Meanwhile, the NCP today organised a morcha against fuel price hike in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai.

NCP spokesman Nawab Malik led the protest by riding a bullock cart while other party workers pushed their fuel-based two-wheelers instead of riding them.