The left parties on Friday condemned the Centre’s decision to effect a “massive” hike in petrol and diesel prices even as AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa demanded that the price fixation policy for the petroleum products be revisited.
The CPI(M) and CPI urged their cadres and trade unions to hold nationwide protests against the Modi Government’s “unprecedented burden” on the public.
“The CPI(M) strongly condemns the massive hike in the prices of petrol and diesel announced by the Modi Government. This will lead to cascading of the inflationary spiral, imposing unprecedented burdens on the working class, once again in a big way. CPI(M) calls upon the people to protest against this latest imposition of burdens on their livelihood,” said CPI(M) Politburo in a statement.
“The increase in prices of petrol and diesel effected by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) will result in the rates of all commodities going up. The lives of ordinary people will be impacted due to this,” said Jayalalithaa in a statement in Chennai. The hike will result in inflation going up further, she added. She said it would be ‘appropriate’ to determine the prices of petrol and diesel based on international crude prices rather than on the said fuels’ rates in the global market. The latest hike by the OMCs should be immediately rolled back and Centre should wrest the authority of fixing fuel prices from the former, she added.
Accusing the Government of being “insensitive” to the problems of the common man, senior CPI leader D Raja attacked the ruling BJP-led dispensation for asking OMCs to hike diesel and petrol prices “arbitrarily”.
“The Government used to say that these prices are adjusted according to the international market. When there was an increase, they increased the prices. But when the international prices fell, they never reduced the prices in accordance with the fall and pass on the entire benefit to the consumers,” he said, adding that the reduction in these prices was “deceptive as it did not really match the actual decline in the international prices.”