The Hindu Business Line : It was finally done, and how?

Mr Pranab Mukherjee first assessed the political risk that the party was willing to take, especially since the next round of Assembly elections were some six months off.

Our Bureau

Advertisement

New Delhi, June 4 It was an early start to the important day after dithering weeks and months on raising petrol and diesel prices.

At 8.30 in the morning on Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) met at the residence of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to take a final call on biting the bullet, or rather, to distort the phrase a bit, on how much of the bullet to bite.

The diffident Petroleum Minister, Mr Murali Deora, had proposed a set of alternative price increases which the CCPA could decide on, but he was not sure what the final settlement would be.

Sources in the Government privy to some of the backroom discussions, say Mr Deora was pushing for Rs 2 a litre hike in case of petrol and Re 1 in case of diesel, not sure that the top political dispensation in the Congress party would agree to anything more than that. The rest of the burden, he kept repeating, should be shouldered by the Finance Ministry.

The fine calculations, however, had already been done by the one and only trouble-shooter in the Congress party, Foreign Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

Mr Mukherjee first assessed the political risk that the party was willing to take, especially since the next round of Assembly elections were some six months off.

Also, populist measures announced in the recent Karnataka elections had failed to take the party past the winning post, so there was not much point in pushing the populist line.

The crisis at the other end was with the oil companies, practically running out of cash to maintain the product flow to the market. The scenario was alarming — shortages, black marketeering and, ultimately, chaos.

The core group in the Congress had come to the conclusion that the Left allies would never be a party to any price hike, more so if it involves diesel and cooking gas.

So it was decided to plead helplessness and keep them in the loop instead of trying to convince them to come on board.

While most of the other heavy weight political allies were within the Government, the one important leader who had to be kept informed was the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief, Mr M. Karunanidhi. So it fell again on the “firefighter” Mr Mukherjee to wing down to Chennai for the Chief Minister’s birthday functions on Tuesday, though any other top Congress Cabinet Minister would have been equal enough to represent the party and the Chennai functions.

Whether Mr Mukherjee informed Mr Karunanidhi about any price hike or not remains a subject between the two leaders.

Mr Mukherjee too seemed to have the clout to convince the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, to bring down his revenue estimates by snipping customs and excise duties on petroleum products, an exercise that Mr Deora had failed to do in the last four years.

Faced with Mr Mukherjee’s stature and arguments, Mr Chidambaram yielded and the financial package to bail out the oil companies took shape in forenoon of Wednesday.

More Stories on : Petroleum | Politics | Economy

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page