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The opposition in the Lok Sabha mounted a scathing attack on the government on skyrocketing prices on Tuesday asking it to "wake up from its deep slumber" and urgently provide relief to the common people instead of being "insensitive" to them.
Initiating a debate on a motion moved by her on the issue of inflation, leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj said the hike in prices of petroleum products, particularly kerosene and liquid petroleum gas, had immensely burdened the people who were already reeling under the spiralling costs of foodgrains and other essentials.
She said while the common man was suffering, the government was "sleeping" and "insensitive" towards them.
"The government should wake up from deep slumber and take urgent effective steps to provide relief to the common man suffering due to backbreaking prices," Swaraj said. The motion, which read, "That this House do consider the inflationary pressure on the economy and its adverse impact on the common man", was taken up a day after government and opposition reached compromise on the issue which paralysed the Parliament throughout last week.
The opposition was pushing for a discussion on price rise under a rule that entails voting but the government stoutly opposed it, leading to a stand-off last week.
During the debate, which will have no voting, Swaraj said the opposition had earlier pressed for Adjournment Motion or discussion under Rule 184 which entails voting but there was "no consensus" and hence they had to move the motion on "inflationary pressure", which is actually price rise.
Addressing Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, she said even the members of the Congress and its allies were concerned over price rise but were keeping mum.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said if the "government becomes unpopular, we will benefit. But that is the language of a businessman. We are not businessmen but guardians of the interests of people."
She said the opposition was not trying to divide the House but wanted it to support the motion. "Do not take the curse of the poor," she told the government.
Swaraj remarked that the National Democratic Alliance government had been hit hard by only one committee -- Kelkar Committee -- while the United Progressive Alliance government had been hurt by three high-level committees constituted to go into key aspects of economy, including subsidies. These committees were headed by C Rangarajan, B K Chaturvedi and Kirit Parekh.
Criticising the government's decision to raise prices of kerosene and LPG, Swaraj said it was done on the pretext that the oil public sector undertakings were incurring losses to the tune of Rs 53,000 crore whereas their annual reports showed net profits of hundreds of crores of rupees.
At this, Mukherjee intervened, saying Swaraj was juggling with figures and projecting a wrong picture.
Swaraj noted that Petroleum Minister Murli Deora had told the House that the prices of kerosene and LPG were also raised to enable the government to fund other social schemes for common people.
"People can benefit from schemes only when they survive from high prices," the BJP leader contended.
"Taxes on petroleum products are higher in India than anywhere else in the world," she pointed out, adding, "There is ample scope to reduce central taxes on petrol and diesel. This can be done by adopting a revenue-neutral regime."
She also said that thousands of tonnes of foodgrains were decaying for the lack of godowns but still the central government was not providing the required allocation to the states despite demands.