Stepping off the gas

The issue of subsidies has become so sensitive in the light of the government's huge fiscal deficit that even the most articulate of ministers hesitate to comment on it. This was the predicament in which Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily found himself last week, at a press conference on the direct benefit programme for domestic cooking gas. A reporter asked him for his views on continuing the subsidy on domestic LPG. As is usual, secretaries of the department step in when the minister is at a loss for words. But Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae, too, did not seem to find an answer, forcing the press relations officer to move to the next question. Inevitably, the question was raised again towards the end of the conference. This time, Rae took over. "As of now, the LPG subsidy continues," he said at the beginning of a long-winding answer that enlightened nobody.