Ground work is being done for steep raise in prices of petroleum products : Diesel from Rs.4 to 8, Petrol from Rs. 5 to 12, Kerosene from Rs. 2 to 8;and cooking gas Rs. 20 to 120 per cylinder in next two months in small and big trenches.
The propelling drama is presented by different wings of the Congress government to dilute the resent and protest of such actions will be implemented in near future. To make ground for such actions these "8 pm to 8 am shutdown jokes" are presented to evade their earlier responsibilities and failures.The suggestions coming out are as follows:
a) Oil minister Mr Moily wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Chidambaram seeking a steeper fuel price hike in addition to the state-run oil firms present raise in petrol and diesel prices by Rs. 2.35 and 50 paise per litre respectively, excluding taxes.
b) Oil Minister Moily said now that the Govt is considering closing petrol pumps at 8 pm to 8 am to check fuel demand, among the various proposals to cut the massive oil import bill and subsequent huge rise in subsidy bill.
c) The Oil Ministry plans to launch a six-week fuel conservation drive from September 16 to cut demand by 3 % and save an estimated Rs.16,000 crore in foreign exchange, to reduce the consumption, to bring down oil imports, to stop rupee from falling.
d) Finance Minister Chidambaram presented another unique theory and said that, “ATMs in the country could be told to open at 8 am and shut down by 8 pm. This way we will save rupee the same way we are going to save fuel by closing down petrol stations at 8.
Most brilliant idea ( no 1 ) of the decade by an intelligent economist FM Chidambaram, when he said that, "Every penny saved is a penny earned. By helping people save money, I am increasing their earnings.”
e) Finance Minister, when questioned that how can rupee taken out from ATM can impact rupee’s value against US Dollar, he gave the most brilliant idea (no. 2 ) that, “It’s simple. If a person is taking out rupee when it’s daytime in the US, he’s certainly doing it to buy dollars.”
e) Mr. Chidambaram most brilliant idea ( no 3 ) of the decade for safety is that this "8 to 8 shut down" will help keep people’s money safe as withdrawing cash at night in India is not safe at all ( Unknowingly he accepted a fact of this Congress governance that India is not safe). He panicked and said, “You know the law and order situation in India. If someone robs you at night then what will you do? Why do you want to carry around cash at night anyway?”
f) The ( huge fiscal deficit led bankrupt ) government is also going to launch a massive campaign by huge spending on ads through the current ‘Bharat Nirman’ campaign for which he said, "Budget for ads is always there", and this huge spending ads will also be used for urging people to avoid spending ( what a stupid contrasting proposition ? ). The push by ads will include mass media campaigns, street plays and hoardings at all ATMs.
g) When Mr. Chidambaram was asked. won’t this ad campaign cost money ?, Mr. Chidambaram seriously joked, “We always have provisions for ads no matter how bad is the state of economy. Did you miss the ads on 20th August or the current ‘Bharat Nirman’ campaign? Budget for ads is always there,” thus surprisingly disclosing the fact that all this was a "Rahul Gandhi Experiment", as Rahul Gandhi is behind this ‘Out of the box’ thinking to arrest the slide of rupee.
Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain reacted sharply to the government's quick-fix solution to deal with the fuel crisis, as he said, "What is a petrol pump, this government will close the country. Won't the people fill their car fuel tanks in the morning?"
It is an earnest question everyone making, "If the Manmohan Singh government has run out of ideas to tackle the economic mess,and making such stupid suggestion in order to save their skin from the rebuke they will be expecting to make by making steep raise in prices of petroleum products to manage huge increase in budgeted subsidy bill. The bigger question is what was rational of presenting this huge 1.25 lakh crore subsidy linked Food Security Bill at this moment and at this difficult juncture ? Is not it playing with fire as regards to economic realities , just to play cheap vote bank politics ?
It is a fact that the renowned economist prime minister, finance minister and other wise men are trapped in the juggernaut of vote politics of Madam Sonia, forced to keep aside the interest of India and its people. They should take suggestions from the opposition parties by surrendering and work jointly to come out of this mess.