With the prices of oil in the international market racing upward every day, the petrol prices in India are very high. India’s ruling party is facing criticism from all corners of the country. There are constant attacks from the opposition parties and the media, but the government remains nonchalant. It appears that crying will yield any results.
Clearly this issue will make a dent in the government’s benchmark of achievements. The current price in the global market is $77, then, why is the domestic price Rs88 (Dh4.48) per litre?
The Non-Democratic Alliance (NDA) claims that the UPA government had accumulated huge backlog subsidiary amounts and burdened oil companies resulting in a huge amount of debt. The common man will not understand this formula of saving oil companies. All they are interested is that at the end of the day what is the petrol price and whether it will burden them or not. The government should not look for implausible and shallow reasons as a safety net. It needs to introspect on people’s feelings and take measures on a war footing. An immediate and possible solution is to convene a meeting with all the different heads of states and find a way to reduce taxes. This can give some respite to the consumers and possibly arrest the inflation temporarily.
If not acted upon now, the whole issue will have a cascading effect on the government and opposition parties will leave no stone unturned to reap maximum benefit out of the current chaos. Let the government stand for the common poor people, not for corporate oil companies. Will Bharat Bandh eventually have an effect and deliver some cheerful news on this issue?
-The reader is a resident of Abu Dhabi
