Nationwide bandh: Mulayam, Karat court arrest

After holding a joint demonstration at Jantar Mantar, the leaders of SP, four Left parties, JD(S), TDP and BJD marched to Parliament Street Police Station along with supporters and courted arrest.

Besides Yadav, Karat (CPI-M)and Bardhan (CPI), other prominent leaders who courted arrested included Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Chandrababu Naidu of TDP and Deve Gowda.

"The government has been coming out with policies after policies that affect people of this country. The biggest loser of these policies especially diesel price hike is farmers. Farmers have been put to lot of trouble.

"We will tour the entire nation and listen to people's grievances and decide our strategy," Yadav said addressing the protesters.

Karat alleged the government came out with the FDI decision to "rob the jobs of traders and give it to companies like Walmart".

"We want to tell the government that its policies on FDI, diesel price hike and PSU disinvestment are wrong. We have to keep this movement alive till the Govt rollbacks these decisions.

"We will fight for this inside and outside Parliament. We will persuade the government to withdraw its decision. I request Mulayam Singh to support us in this fight for the people of the country," he said.

Naidu said the government's policies are "wrong" and the Congress has to understand this. "All these are anti-people decisions and they need to be withdrawn," he added.

A nation-wide bandh has been called by NDA, Left parties and SP against the Centre's decision on FDI in retail, diesel price rise and cap on LPG cylinders.