Fuel price rise essential, Sonia Gandhi says in 'Sandesh'

Even as parliament gets ready for a consensual debate on the issue of price rise, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has defended the hike in fuel prices.

“An increase in prices is never a pleasant thing. However, this has been done for a number of reasons, including the availability of funds for our social sector schemes,” she wrote in the July issue of the party house journal Congress Sandesh released on Monday.

Taking her defence of the price hike further, Gandhi said the UPA throughout its tenure had worked to ensure that the aam aadmi was shielded from the burden of rising oil prices in the international market.

“Our record on this front is there for all to see. While the NDA raised the prices of diesel and petrol 31 and 28 times respectively in their five-year tenure,d the UPA kept a close vigil on prices only changing it on 9 occasions in 6 years,” she observed.

The Congress chief’s appreciation of the UPA’s track record on the price front was echoed by party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan.

“We welcome the decline in food inflation to single digit levels. This is a fall-out of the government’s efforts to hold the price line. We are aware that this is a sensitive matter, and more needs to be done,” she told mediapersons. For Natarajan, the government’s decision to accept a “sense of the House” resolution on the inflation front (not price) was not a case of self-indictment.