Members from the ruling and opposition benches clashed in the Lok Sabha on Friday over the issue of price hike of non-subsidised cooking gas cylinders.

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Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress) accused the government of cheating the consumers who surrendered their subsidy based on the Prime Minister's appeal. "Now they have been burdened with another hike of Rs 86 per cylinder, which was the highest ever," he said. He accused the government of continuously hiking the prices of oil products, especially the non-subsidised cooking gas cylinders, despite its prices dropping in the international market.

When Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar defended the price hike, the Opposition walked out in protest. The minister described the increase of Rs 86 per cylinder as a "small hike" and asserted that only 1.1 crore out of a total of 91.7 crore LPG consumers will have to pay the increased price while the poor are not at all affected.

Kharge pointed out how the price of the non-subsidised LPG cylinder had been hiked six times — from Rs 467 per cylinder in 2016 to Rs 737 today. He, joined by other opposition members, wanted rollback of this burden put on the poor.

In 2012, the crude oil price in the international market was $122 per barrel and the LPG cylinder was sold at Rs 345 while petrol and diesel cost Rs 58 and 37 per litre respectively. But in 2016, when the international crude oil price went down to $33, an LPG cylinder costs Rs 513 and petrol and diesel Rs 56 and Rs 46 per litre respectively.

Revolutionary Socialist Party member NK Premchandran said it is an assault on the middle class people who responded to the PM's call to give up subsidy to help the poor. He said the hike of Rs 271 per LPG cylinder was "unheard of" and accused the government of not passing on the benefits of the fall in international oil price to the consumers.

When Congress member KC Venugopal said the government had cheated over 1 crore people who had reportedly given up their LPG subsidy, Minister Ananth Kumar asserted that nobody was forced to give up the subsidy and all those who surrendered did it voluntarily.

He also accused the Opposition of misleading the House, noting that the crude oil prices have not gone down in the international markets but have rather gone up from $471 per metric tonne to $564. He said Kharge had happily forgotten that the UPA government in 2010 had decided to hike the LPG cylinder price by Rs 2 every month. He added that the government has provided LPG connections to over 2 crore poor households in the last two years under the 'Ujjwala yojna'.

During commotion, there were also interesting exchanges between the government and opposition benches. Former union home secretary and BJP MP RK Singh took on Kharge, for using the term 'Modi government' and asked him to use term ''Government of India' or the 'NDA government'. But Kharge said the PM was himself using the phrase "my government" and never even calls it a BJP government.