Yogesh Mishra
The rising prices of essential commodities have given golden
opportunity to the opposite parties to hit the Congress-led UPA
government, expose its flawed policies and create its ‘bad boy’ image
before public. So, all the opposite parties including BJP joined hands
and staged nationwide dharna and demanded from the Centre either to
bring down prices or to step down. After the dharna of opposition was
over, the Congress decided to show the public a different angle of
bringing the prices down, especially fuel prices. In Chhattisgarh, the
state Congress staged dharna and informed people that the state
government, too, can curb inflation by merely reducing VAT (Value
Added Tax). The Congress said if the government would cut down VAT on
petroleum products from existing 25% to 14%, the petrol and diesel
would be cheaper by Rs 5 and Rs 3 respectively while the LPG cylinder
price would plunge by Rs 35. Suddenly, the ball is in BJP’s court and
Congress is smiling. But will the UPA further slash prices of
essential commodities including petroleum products if the state
governments including Chhattisgarh reduce VAT? The fact is, neither
the state governments nor the Centre will take any decision in
people’s favour. They simply want to deceive the citizens on pretext
of dharnas. Gandhiji, alas, this is not your period and now dharnas
are staged not for masses, but for classes (self). Is Congress still
smiling?
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