Justifying the hike in rail fares, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said it was a "sound economic decision" given the financial health of railways. Chidambaram also sought to make light the opposition criticism of the decision saying it was fair game for them to to oppose the fare hike for the sake of opposition.

"I think these are sound economic decisions. I think we should not politicise these decisions. Of course, economic decisions are taken by a political government but they do not cease to be economic decisions," he told reporters in Delhi.

He was asked to comment on the Opposition criticism of the decision to hike passenger rail fares across the board from January 21 and its demand for immediate rollback.

"Railway fare hike is an economic decision. Railway fares have not been hiked for 10 years," he said. Chidambaram said Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had briefed the media yesterday and explained why it was unavoidable to increase the passenger fares given the state of health of the finances of railways.

"I think it is fair game for opposition to oppose the fare hike for the sake of opposition. But, the last time railway fares were hiked was by the NDA government when Nitish Kumar was the Railways Minister," he said. Chidambaram said there was no proposal before the Cabinet to increase diesel prices