The fuel price rise issue is refusing to die down. While AICC leader Anil Shastri has come out openly against it saying the rise is disastrous as it has badly affected the “common man”, the Oppostion parties are planning to hold a Bharat bandh on the issue before the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Mr Shastri, the special invitee to the CWC and an editor of the party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh is perhaps the first leader to come out openly against the fuel price rise. He wrote in his Twitter post, “Increase in the prices of kerosene and cooking gas is disastrous. The common man is badly affected. Soniaji must immediately intervene.”
The other day, AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said, “There must have been certain compulsions. No government wants to become unpopular.”
The Congress, heading the UPA government at the Centre, has been cautious in its reaction on this burning issue after realising how people had strongly reacted to the NDA’s “India Shining” and “feel good”’ campaign in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. The UPA partners — Trinamul Congress and DMK — might not be justifying the rise but they too are party to the decision being sharing power at the Centre. Their dual stand on this issue would help the Marxists and the AIADMK in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu politically. In a related development, chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu said the current subsidy of about 60 per cent on kerosene will come down with time as it stands to cause distortions in the economy.
“Kerosene (price) is fixed but it’s not fixed into eternity... I do believe that by having this controlled price for LPG and kerosene, the distortions will continue,” he said.