Oil pooling

The BJP and the Left need our special congratulations for their new and absurd alliance. Sworn enemies, they suddenly find themselves on the same side of the fence in their opposition to the oil price hike. With world oil prices touching $59 per barrel, most people would agree that oil prices must rise in India. After all the country is not — as far as we know — located on a different planet. Besides, if the Left and the BJP were themselves in power at the Centre, it is unlikely that they would have had any choice but to hike oil prices. So what is all this posturing about? Perhaps acting with irresponsibility is one of the delights of being in the Opposition — or in supporting the government from the outside. You then have the luxury of traipsing around the country and decrying price hikes as governmental folly.

There is another delicious irony that seems to have escaped these two political entities. The CPI was part of the I.K. Gujral government when it took the decision to dismantle the administered price mechanism (APM). Two CPI ministers, Indrajit Gupta and Chaturanan Mishra, were part of that Cabinet decision to do so. And that government, let us not forget, was being supported by the CPM from the outside. Coming to the BJP, was it not the NDA government that had decided to revise petrol prices every fortnight, in keeping with its commitment to dismantle the APM? To any rational person this suggests then that these political entities are not, in principle, opposed to the movement of domestic oil prices in sync with global trends; that their hi-jinks today are inspired more by political expediency, than anything else. Why let the UPA government get away with it? Why not squeeze this lemon for what it’s worth?

Of course, if the UPA government had done the right thing by petroleum products, it would not have had to face this treatment. Even though the APM was officially dismantled in April 2002, subsequent petroleum ministers have not given up their power over oil PSUs and allowed them to determine prices for themselves. Oil prices should, rightly, have been market determined by now. There was a time when the prices of sugar and cement were fixed by the government. This had made them highly politicised, too. Not any more — for the simple reason that the government has kept itself out. But this has not happened in the case of petroleum products. The NDA government did nothing to reduce its petroleum minister’s control over oil prices. The government changed, but the price of petrol still gets discussed at Cabinet meetings. So when its Left allies scream into its ear; when the BJP goes into overdrive on the issue, the UPA government only has itself to blame.