NEW DELHI, 2 December 2004 — Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani courted arrest here yesterday along with thousands of supporters in the first show of strength by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since its electoral rout in May.

After delivering fiery speeches denouncing the government over the rising prices of essential goods, the BJP leaders sought to march from the Ram Lila grounds, the venue, to Parliament house about five kilometers away but were prevented by a huge posse of policemen.

As the BJP members persisted in continuing with the protest procession, the police announced that all of them were being taken into custody.

Vajpayee, 79, who was prime minister for six years until May, was the first to amble his way to break the police cordon. He was “arrested” and immediately let off, and police officials then gently led him to his car.

All others, including Advani and his colleagues in the BJP, were taken in after they symbolically offered themselves for arrest. They were driven to the nearby Ambedkar sports stadium and let off later.

Earlier, addressing a public rally, Advani, the BJP president, accused the government of failing to check spiraling prices and of “deceiving” the common man.

He said the increase in the prices of petroleum products had a cascading effect on all commodities. Speaking in his inimitable style, Vajpayee also hit out at the Congress-led coalition government.

The party leaders claimed that during the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, prices of essential commodities were kept firmly under control.

“Inflation remained between 3.5 and 4 percent. However, within six months of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coming to power, inflation has nearly doubled,” one of them said.

Meanwhile, in Lok Sabha, (lower house) BJP’s deputy leader V.K. Malhotra raised the issue of mounting prices during zero hour. Charging the government with “total failure” on this front, the NDA members walked out of the Lok Sabha.

Expressing that the rising prices had broken the people’s backbone, Malhotra said: “Let there be discussion and voting on the issue in the house and I am sure two-thirds of members will vote against the UPA government which is in a minority.”

The Lok Sabha session commenced yesterday on a stormy note with Bahujan Samaj Party demanding dismissal of Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh for arresting its leader Mohammad Tahir.