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Ally pressure led to putting off of hike

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Relentless pressure from the Trinamul Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Telugu Desam Party forced the Vajpayee government on Saturday to defer the hike in the prices of petroleum products, top government sources said.

The Union Cabinet, which met in New Delhi on Saturday morning, could not take a decision on the hike, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan telling reporters that "it was not on the agenda".

According to Mahajan, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik was "competent enough to take an appropriate decision at any point of time, when he feels like it." Mahajan underscored that in his briefing to the Union Cabinet, Naik pointed out that the oil pool deficit was around Rs 24,000 crore.

Mahajan later indicated that the petroleum price hike issue could figure in the meeting of the National Democratic Alliance scheduled for later on in the day, but refused to elaborate.

However, sources told rediff.com that with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee hinting that such a hike was inevitable, the Trinamul, DMK and TDP leaderships had objected to the move, forcing the government to defer the matter.

"NDA leaders Mamta Banerjee, Murasoli Maran and Chandrababu Naidu have categorically told the prime minister that they could ill-afford to pass on the 'burden' of the hike to the common man," the sources pointed out.

The NDA leaders have urged the prime minister to reconsider his decision so that it could be "pruned down," in order to give the maximum possible succour to the common people.

Mamta has been telling the people of West Bengal that she was their watchdog at the Centre and she would not allow to "unnecessarily burden" the general public.

Significantly, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu face assembly elections next year, and electoral considerations have made these NDA constituents 'allergic' to any hike the prices of essential commodities.

TDP chief Naidu has also told the prime minister that the government should "think carefully" before announcing the petroleum price hike, although all three NDA leaders are well aware of the rising international prices of crude.

Sources said Murasoli Maran too spoke to the prime minister earlier in the day, of his party's views on harsh economic measures.

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