Nagpur, June 29 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti has criticised Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for justifying the recent fuel price hike.
Bharti, while speaking to mediapersons, said Mukherjee's recent statement on the price hike showed that the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance government is no longer bothered about the common man.
"People like Pranab Mukherjee and the leaders of the Congress party are not worthy of ruling this country. They don't understand the value of Rs. 50 for a poor man. It's like a situation when France's Queen Mary Antoinette had said that people should eat cake if they don't have bread. The fate that they shared at the guillotine will be shared by these people as well. I demand that Pranab Mukherjee should apologise for his statement," said Bharti.
Mukherjee had recently stated that the increase of Rs. 50 in the prices of LPG cooking gas is not much of a pressure on the common man.
The Centre on Friday hiked the price of diesel by three rupees a litre, kerosene by two rupees a litre and LPG by 50 rupees a cylinder.
Since it was first elected in 2004, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh government has more often than not refrained from pushing through tough reforms in favour of pleasing its predominantly rural voter base.
Diesel is the most widely used transport fuel in India and powers tractors and irrigation pumps for farmers in one of the world's biggest producers and consumers of grains and sugar.
Since the government agreed in principle to lift fuel costs a year ago, international crude prices have soared 39 percent, swelling the money spent on subsidising fuel prices to a country with 500 million people living in poverty.
Petrol prices, which largely affect more affluent Indians, have gone up about 23 percent since they were freed a year ago.
According to official estimates, the public sector oil companies are currently losing 490 crore rupees per day on sale of petrol and diesel, kerosene and LPG cylinder at current prices. (ANI)
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