“First take the fuel price from 70 to 110. Then give a 5 Rs reduction after poor performance in the by-polls. BJP exists with, for & by the elections,” Congress Spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi tweeted soon after BJP Government slashed down excise duty on fuel prices. If Singhvi’s words are to be taken into account, was the fuel price slashed because of fear and not from the heart?
All these run along with the poor performance of the BJP in the recent Assembly bypolls in 13 states. The recent fuel politics should also be read on the sidelines of the forthcoming assembly elections in five states. The politics behind slashing the fuel price is quite reflected with the pace by which the Centre slashed the price on the eve of Deepavali.
CONCERN AND DIP IN POPULARITY
The constant price hike of petro products had an adverse impact on the people. Even BJP workers in all the states had raised concern among their party forums on the adverse effect of fuel price. This is quite reflected in the words of Pandit Sunil Bharala, a senior leader and chairman of Labour Welfare Council in Uttar Pradesh. He had written a letter to the Union minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, noting public outrage over a Rs 36 increase in petrol prices over the last year and a half.
The price hike in the last one year had caused a dip in the popularity of Narendra Modi government, which got reflected in the recent by-polls. Fear politics overran everything; the fear of losing in the forthcoming assembly elections in five states.
FUEL POLITICS
Fuel politics, as critics and political pundits point out has great influence on the voters. For the common man, who is already reeling under COVID pandemic, the continuous fuel price hike only added to their worries. Not just the common man people from the salaried population to the farmers had a worried time over the hike. With fuel prices going up, the people were quite upset with the Centre, which reflected in the by-polls.
WitH elections in five states nearing and that too crucial in states like Uttar Pradesh, the BJP core group had no other choice but to demand the government to slash the price.
With the fuel prices slashed, the BJP has opened up fuel politics. The BJP cadres, who have been otherwise silent for the last one year when the prices were shooting up, suddenly got up from slumber and started praising Modi government for slashing the tax. The BJP leaders even blamed the Opposition parties for doing “petty politics” over high fuel prices by not reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the States ruled by them even after Centre reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel.
All the BJP ruled states slashed VAT soon after the Centre’s proclamation. The non-BJP ruled states are yet to take a final call on the price cuts. The BJP has played the real politics when elections are due in five states. The BJP could now put the blame on Opposition for the hiked fuel price, claiming that the fuel price could have been brought down if these states had cut down VAT. Moreover, it will not be a surprise if prices are not hiked in the coming months. One should look back towards the months of February and March 2021 when the country did not witness fuel price hike of a single paisa. Some had even rumored at that time that instructions were passed on to the oil companies not to burden the people with an extra paisa every day during the election month. Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry had gone to the Polls at that time.
At least people can heave a sigh of relief for the time being and hope no more continuous hikes for some days.
