New Delhi/Mumbai/Lucknow/Kolkata/Chennai, May 23: Almost all major parties except the ruling Congress today lashed out at the UPA government for the steep hike in petrol price.
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee described the steep hike as “unjust and unilateral”, adding that her party was not consulted on the issue.
However she said, “we do not want to topple the UPA government which the CPI-M wants. It will create political and economic instability.”
The TC supremo asked why Parliament was not taken into confidence on this issue. “Doing such things over and over again is not good.”
DMK supremo M Karunanidhi in Chennai demanded rollback of the steep hike and said his MPs would convey the party's views to the Centre.
The Left parties and the BJP have decided to give a call for nationwide demonstrations to protest the steep hike in petrol price.
Several Congress MPs too, told mediapersons in private that they were against the steep hike. “It will be very difficult for us to reply to people in our constituencies”, one Congress MP said, requesting that his identity be not disclosed.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, petrol is a deregulated commodity and a decision has been taken by the oil companies.
UPA's outside supporter Samajwadi Party dubbed the steep petrol price hike as a “gift” to the common man from the government on completion of its three years in office and demanded its immediate roll back.
Ironically, it was SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav who sat at the high table with UPA chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday evening at the PM's dinner to celebrate three years of UPA-2 rule.
“We demand immediate roll back of petrol price hike. The decision is anti-people. UPA government has given this gift to the common man on completion of its three years' rule,” SP spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury said hours after the government announced a steep hike of Rs 7.50 a litre.
He said the party would protest the decision and raise its voice against the unreasonable hike.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi tweeted from Ahmedabad : "Massive hike in petrol prices is a prime example of the failure of Congress-led UPA. This will put a burden of hundreds of crores on Guj."
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said, the steep hike will only help in subsidizing this government by nearly Rs 90,000 crore.
Yechury pointed out that the Finance Ministry and the government at the Centre earn huge amount of taxes and duties from such hikes. "The question is not only about petrol, it concerns the middle class, most of whom ride two-wheelers."
The CPI-M leader disputed the government's assertion that the steep hike was because of hike in international oil prices. "The oil companies on their own do not hike prices. It's the government which gives the go-ahead."
In Chandigarh, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today slammed the UPA government for the “totally unjustified” hike in the price of petrol and demanded its immediate roll back.
In a statement here, the Akali Dal said the hike would unleash fresh inflationary trends, jack up prices of all essential commodities and break the back of the common man.
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the “unbearable hike”, he said the steep increase would retard the pace of economic growth.
Badal lamented that inflation had already touched double digit mark and was beyond the control of UPA government despite its tall claims to check it.
In Chennai, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today demanded immediate roll back, warning that people's agony would spell the doom for the ‘anti-people' UPA government soon.
“The hike of Rs 7.50 will affect the poor and the middle class. This is a gift given to the people by the UPA coalition government on its completion of three years in office,” the AIADMK chief said in a statement.
She said the hike in petrol price could have been avoided by reducing the profit of the government as well as private run oil companies, reducing the tax on petrol and checking the falling rupee value.
Holding that the UPA government's ‘wrong' economic policies were responsible for the price rise, steep rupee depreciation and economic slowdown, she said the latest petrol price hike had only added “fuel to the fire”.
There was no doubt that the hike would dent the middle class people's purchasing power further and plummet their economic status, she said.
“I urge the Centre to rollback the petrol hike immediately. Otherwise, the tears of the people will become a weapon that would cause the fall of the anti-people Congress coalition soon,” she said.
In Patna, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad tonight said he would soon meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee seeking a rollback.
"The increase in prices of petrol has caused additional burden on people already badly hit by price rise," Prasad said.
