Poll Politics Confounds Petro Price Hike Issue

Parties fear unpopular move will alienate voters

A sense of despondency has engulfed the petroleum ministry. The refrain being that the I K Gujral government will not be able to take the unpopular decision of increasing the prices of petroleum products.

The price hike issue has been shelved for the time being, confirms T R Baalu, minister of state for petroleum. He does not know how long it will remain on the shelf. Ask the Prime Minister, he says, when pressed for an answer.

TR Baalu is positive that the issue cannot be allowed to drag in this fashion for very long. The oil economy can absorb the delay in price-hike at the most for another month and not beyond that. If the hike is postponed further, everything will come to a grinding halt, the minister cautions.

But the Prime Minister is already on record to have said that the price-increase will be effected only after the plenary session of the Congressto be held in Calcutta from August 8.

This means that the hike, even if it is effected, will only come about after over a month. Will things come to standstill in the intervening period? Ask the Prime Minister, the minister repeats.

Industry observers are also of the view that with the Gujral government facing political uncertainty because of the different positions taken by various constituents of the United Front on the Laloo Yadav episode, general elections could be round the corner.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and, now, the Congress, have already launched rath yatras to mobilise voters in their favour.

Other political parties are also learnt to be chalking out similar programmes in preparation for elections.

Under these circumstances, the observers are certain that no government can take a highly unpopular step like the oil price increase which will adversely affect all sections of voters.

The biggest dilemma facing the ministry on the issue is that its two ministers Janeshwar Mishra and T R Baalu are also not sure if they should support or oppose the price-hike move.

This is so because though both the ministers are well aware of the urgency of increasing prices to put the oil economy on an even keel, the parties of both the ministers the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) have passed resolutions opposing the hike.