The opposition Congress on Monday staged a walkout in the Karnataka Assembly in protest against price rise, saying that they were not satisfied by Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai’s answers. The Leader of the Opposition, Siddaramaiah, who initiated the debate, demanded a cut in the taxes to bring down fuel prices. No assurance came from the government.
The House also witnessed a heated exchange of words between ruling BJP and Congress as both sides traded charges against their leaders, following which the Congress trooped out of the House. Earlier on Monday, the Congress took out a bicycle rally, seeking to highlight what they called “high” fuel prices.
During the discussion, Bommai conceded that the growing fuel prices were affecting the people and the government was keen to find a solution on bringing them under control. While stating that the issue of rising fuel prices were hard realities leading to declining popularity on certain occasions, the Chief Minister pointed out that everyone is of the opinion that the country’s economy should not get destabilised.
Bommai also insisted that the dependence on the import of crude oil has resulted in rising fuel prices. In this context, he advocated usage of increasing ethanol blending. The Chief Minister also cited expert opinion that ethanol has all the qualities of petrol which can be used and it can be extracted from sugarcane, paddy, maize, hay and stubble.
“We can use cheap oil, but we keep hearing that ethanol is not encouraged due to the pressure from the oil lobby,” the Chief Minister pointed out. He also explained the measures to minimise the LPG cost by supplying it through pipelines, instead of cylinders.
Bommai said the Central government’s Ujjwala scheme has helped 16.11 crore families get gas connections in seven years, whereas in previous governments, mainly that of the Congress, provided only 13 crore gas connections in 60 years. Underlining the importance of taxes, the Chief Minister said development is carried out with the tax money as revenue is the backbone of any administration.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Bommai said people know that those staging a bicycle rally will take to high end cars once the protest was over. Retorting to this, Siddaramaiah said the issue raised by them was related to the common man. He also said his statement on price rise was not a political statement.
He pointed out that in seven years, diesel prices had shot up from Rs 46 to Rs 96, impacting every sector. Chaos prevailed as Siddaramaiah made remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An angry Bommai too made a similar charge against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Amid the noisy scenes, Congress staged a walkout, shouting slogans against the ruling BJP. After the din was over, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy advised the Chief Minister not to speak ill against Manmohan Singh, saying that his contribution to the Indian economy was huge as Prime Minister, as well as Union Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao government.
“The Aadhaar scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme and Goods and Services Tax (GST), which the BJP takes credit for, was the brainchild of the Congress. Had there not been MGNREGA, economically weaker sections would have perished during the COVID induced lockdown,” Kumaraswamy said. Bommai too agreed with him and said he has respect for the former Prime Minister.
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