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Bengaluru, Jan 7: Slogans of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ rent the air at Town Hall on Monday evening as thousands of students, social activists, lawyers, doctors and theatrepersons among others staged a protest to denounce Sunday’s attack on the students and faculty of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

“This is unacceptable. As students living in hostels, we are now worried about our safety,” said Prakruthi Kishore, a student of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru.

Rishi Kumar, a student of Indian Institute of Science, pitched in. “JNU is an extremely protected university located in the national capital. It’s surprising that such an incident occurred amid tight security.”

Delhi police and the government need to wake up and take stringent action against the goons, Kumar said, adding: “Students can’t be treated like puppets. The government needs to act immediately.”

“The government is behaving shamelessly by sending goons to threaten students and professors of JNU,” said Alokanath Pandit, a lawyer.

With “Zor se bolo-azadi, tum din me maaro-azadi, hum raat me ayenge-azadi,” drowning the cacophony of traffic at the intersection, the sloganeering reached a crescendo around 6pm as the protesters raised their hands in a show of solidarity with the beleaguered JNU community.

Theatrepersons Prasanna and Arundathi Nag, farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar and social activists Tara Krishnaswamy and Srinivas Alavilli were present at the protest venue. “It is not fair that educational institutions are now becoming the target. First, they hiked fees and now they are attacking students. What is the government doing,” Arundathi asked.

“JNU has always been an institution which has raised its voice against atrocities across the country as its students harbour no fear. This is an alarm bell for the country and the government to wake up. Students are the future and can’t be targeted,” she added.

Chandrashekar said Narendra Modi is unfit to be the Prime Minister as he doesn’t keep his word. “Modi said he will help farmers but has done nothing for them. He said he will provide employment to students but is now making them furious,” he said.

With the steep hike in excise duty in the past couple of months, an average consumer of petrol now pays over 275% in taxes to centre and states on a litre of the fuel.  The base price of petrol is just about Rs 18. The taxes are close to Rs 50 and the pump price is over Rs 72.

India imports 85% of all its crude oil demand.  After a steep hike in excise duty in the past two months despite a hold on daily price revisions by the oil public sector undertakings (PSUs), Indian consumers now pay 275% collectively in excise duty to state and centre. 

The central government hiked excise on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 and Rs 13 respectively last month. The excise duty on petrol is taxed around Rs 33-a-litre while the same on diesel it is Rs 32.

The Value-Added Tax (VAT) on both petrol and diesel is Rs 16.44 and Rs 16.26 respectively. Both the taxes together are around Rs 49 while it is sold at petrol pumps at 73-per-litre.

These two taxes cumulatively account for 69% of tax which is higher than anywhere else in the world. The same is taxed at 19% in the US, 47% in Japan, UK 62% and 63% in France. The government does not pass on the benefit of lower crude oil prices to the customer.

It is to be noted that Indian consumers continued to pay Rs 70-a-litre even when crude oil prices hit a paltry US $ 20-a-barrel on April 12.

Former finance minister and Congress leader recently took a jab at the Centre over rising prices stating, “Fuel selling prices raised twice in two days, following tax hikes two weeks ago. This time to benefit oil companies. Government is poor, it needs more taxes. Oil companies are poor, they need better prices. Only the poor and middle class are not poor, so they will pay”.

Bengaluru, Jun 16: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya and Cafe Coffe Day founder late VG Siddhartha's son, Amarthya Hegde got engaged at SM Krishna Residence, Sadashivanagar in Bengaluru on Monday.
Only family members were present in the event. Amarthya Hegde is also the grandson of former Union Minister SM Krishna.
Last year in July, the body of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder Siddhartha was unearthed on the banks of Netravati river.