Congress seeks moderation

NEW DELHI: Soon after the government announced its decision to hike petrol and diesel prices, the Congress party on Monday sought a moderation in the price hike.

This makes a partial rollback of the announced steep price hikes inevitable, given the common opposition of all political parties, both within and outside the ruling coalition, to the move.

The party leadership, which discussed the government’s decision to hike diesel and petrol prices, was of the view that the current pricing was politically imprudent.

“The leadership discussed the issue. While appreciating the government’s concern, the leadership was of the view that the government should lessen the burden on the common man,” party spokesman Rajiv Shulka said.


The government should revisit the issue and bring down the prices to “politically permissible” limits. There were indications that the party will come out with a formal statement on Tuesday, putting down its reservations on the hike. The Congress’ intervention coincided with visible signs of unease in the alliance over pushing “politically prohibitive” decisions.

The Left leaders, who have been canvassing support from UPA allies for its attack on the government, discussed the price hike issue with Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi.

The petro price hike is not the only issue that has been agitating Congress leaders. Monday’s meeting of senior leaders, which discussed changes in the “saral form” — the new format to replace the existing IT form — rejected the finance ministry’s stand that the changes will make the filing of tax returns more “assessee-friendly”.

The meeting directed the government to address the criticism against the changes in the IT form immediately. “There are complaints that the form is not assessee-friendly. The government should set things right immediately,” the party spokesman said. That the ruling party has criticised its own government on such a major issue can be attributed to two major reasons.

One, the government did not take the party into confidence on the price-hike move and acted purely on techno-economic considerations; and the party has censured the government leadership. Given the equations between the party and the government, this is unlikely.

A more plausible explanation is that the Congress thinks it would be a form of clever political management: If the government has to accommodate the inevitable Left ally demand to roll back the price increase partially, it would save face if the Congress too pitches the same demand.