Government today came under all-round attack over the petrol price hike, with key UPA constituent Trinamool Congress threatening even withdrawal of support but Manmohan Singh remained unfazed.
Government today came under all-round attack over the petrol price hike, with key UPA constituent Trinamool Congress threatening even withdrawal of support but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh remained unfazed.
In an unusual development, the Kerala High Court stepped into the scene, saying it was concerned over the price rise and directed Indian Oil and Reliance Petroleum to produce their balance sheets and quarterly reports.
Pressure mounted on the government to roll back the hike as Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee attacked the decision to raise the petrol price by Rs 1.80 as unilateral without consultations with allies like her party, DMK and NCP.
Banerjee, whose party is the second largest constituent of the UPA along with DMK with 18 MPs, held an emergency meeting of its Parliamentary Party its after she said leaders favoured withdrawal of support but she has stayed such a move.
"Our withdrawal of support may result in fall of the government. But since the Prime Minister is away, we want to discuss with him and have sought an appointment with him," she said.
Banerjee reminded the Congress that it was dependent on the support of allies like her party, NCP and DMK to run the government but the allies have been "silenced" and not not heard in the Cabinet.
DMK also demanded a roll back of the decision, saying it had added enormously to the burden of the poor, lower and middle classes.
NCP and National Conference were also unhappy with the petrol price hike and sought a reconsideration of the decision.
Congress joined others in expressing concern over the hike and sources in the party indicated that a partial rollback could be considered.
However, the Prime Minister did not appear to give any such indication when he virtually justified the hike. He also appeared unfazed about the withdrawal threat by Trinamool.
"Well that is the general direction in which we should move. I think the move to decontrol the prices is a part of that process.
"But as I said, these are very sensitive areas and I have no hesitation in saying ultimately we must allow the markets to find their own level except for those commodities which are semi public goods," Singh told journalists in Cannes where he attended the G-20 Summit.
"So, the direction of change is quite clear. We must move in the direction of decontrolling more and more prices," he said when asked about the uproar back home over the petrol price hike and Trinamool's threat.
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