Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday convinced the Congress leadership to look beyond electoral gains in the greater national interest prompting the party to finally take a call on the fuel price hike and justify it.“It is with a heavy heart that the UPA Government has taken the decision. The minimum possible burden has been put on the common man,” AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here. However, he steered clear of queries on whether the party would prefer a partial rollback. “A very difficult decision has been taken and I am not going to indulge in any speculation,” he said. Tewari also said the party would like the state Governments to follow in the footsteps of the Centre and take measures like duty cuts that would benefit the common man.Drawing from his experience in 2006 when the Congress had forced a partial rollback, the PM held several rounds of discussions with the party leadership — during the core committee meets as well as the one-on-one meetings with Congress President Sonia Gandhi — before announcing the hike. “The question here was whether you keep political interest first or the national interest. The Congress has always put the country’s interest first. We hope people will understand that the Government had no alternative whatsoever,” said Tewari. On the Left and the RJD’s demand for a rollback, the AICC spokesperson said “political interests” should not be mixed with “national interest”. Condemning the BJP for its remarks about the UPA Government unleashing “economic terror” on the people, Tewari called it “highly objectionable and absurd”. He said the BJP, during its tenure from 1998 to 2004, increased petrol prices by Rs 11.77 compared to Rs 14.51 (including the recent hike) during the UPA regime despite the fact that crude oil prices had shot up by 203 per cent between May 2004 and March 2008.
