Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Ram Naik on Friday said that his counterpart Jaipal Reddy in the UPA Cabinet should have quit as Petroleum Minister instead of being handed over another ministry after complaining of alleged pressure from Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries ltd (RIl) to hike natural gas prices.
“He (Reddy) did not have the courage to get out of the UPA Cabinet and chose to be remain in another ministry,” he said in a news conference here.
Naik said that during the NDA rule, the gas pipelines were still being laid in the country when the feud between the two Ambani brothers commenced over division of Reliance empire.
“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should have taken a decision on the issue at that time,” he said.
Naik said that currently the crude oil imports have reached 80 per cent from the 70 per cent level during the NDA rule. On the other hand, in the absence of any ‘permanent’ Government policy on petroleum and natural gas products during the past decade, there had been no hike in domestic crude oil and natural gas production, he said.
During the NDA rule under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ethanol and bio diesel were being promoted as ‘alternate fuels’ which the Congress-led UPA Government almost stopped promoting in the country, Naik said. “During the UPA rule, there had been atleast four Petroleum Ministers which resulted in no petroleum policy being formed. As a result, the prices of petroleum products and natural gas consistently rose leading to a price spiral in petroleum and natural gas prices,” the former Petroleum Minister stated.
The Congress-led UPA Government had three major reasons for its failure — price rise, corruption besides questions on internal and external security, Naik said.
The Prime Minister and his Government have no control on the price rise situation now which has brought
sufferings to the people of the country, he said.