Not only is this a Uturn itu2019s also hypocrisy at its finest.I am talking about the price of petrol and diesel all across the nation today.Letu2019s have a look. Remember thisAnd thisAnd thisThere are much more.This was the BJP implementing the Bharat Bandh on the 31st of May 2012against the UPA government because of the u201cdraconian petrol hike thatu2019sbreaking the backs of the common man and causing growthslumping inflation.u201dThey called the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a lackey of the oilcompanies and accused him of standing by and doing nothing for the common manas the price of fuel kept on creeping up every week.So what happened Why did the UPA government maintain such a high price forpetrol and diesel How cruel could they beRead on. Around 2022 due to changing growth expectations post the 2022 FinancialCrisis increased oil production in the USA sanctions on Iran over itsnuclear program and disruption of oil production in wartorn places Syria andSudan the price of crude oil in the international market sky rocketed up to a100 per barrel and even breached it afterwards.India imports 80 of its oil so naturally we began to feel the pinch. Thecentral government sensing the inflationary tendencies of such a backbreakingrise in the price of fuel in India began doling out subsidies to control that.At its peak in June 2022 when the crude oil price reached 106 per barrelthe average price of petrol and diesel in India was Rs. 76.31 and Rs. 61.55respectively. 1The subsidies that the government set aside to regulate the price formed 1 ofour GDP in 2012u201313 while in 2004u201305 it was ONLY .09 of our GDP. Needless tosay that bloated our subsidies bill and the idea of regulating the price tocontrol inflation didnu2019t work very well either. The richest 10 householdsreceived seven times more in benefits than the poorest 10. 2Point being the UPA government did everything in its power to keep fuelprices under check even when that meant overstepping its budgetary limits.Yet the BJP criticised them for being beholden to the corporates of thenation and increasing the prices and said they were cruel and that theycouldnu2019t care less for the people of India. Fast forward to 2022 the international crude oil price per barrel has morethan halved. It now stands at 53 per barrel as opposed to the 106 price backin 2012.Well that said the price reduction should benefit us the common publicright Fuel prices should hover around the 40 rupees mark shouldnu2019t itNo.Even when the crude oil prices have halved the fuel prices are as much as itwas during the UPA term. No difference.Whereu2019s the money goingTo the government.As of now we the common public of India are paying more than 100 tax on ourfuel. Every time the price of petrol and diesel went down the centralgovernment increased the excise duty so that we donu2019t feel the decrease inprice. Here is a comparative chart from 2015.Notice how the blue line crude oil price goes down drastically and yet theprice that we pay for petrol did not falter one bit like a dead manu2019s ECG.Here is the price of diesel during the same period.Same story.Here is the comparison chart of fuel prices during UPA government in 2022 andthat of the NDA government now in September 2017.Notice how the crude oil prices differ in the first column and then look atthe overall price of petrol and diesel which remains almost the same. Magicalstuff. Now I am an objective person. I am willing to cut some slack here. I realizethe government needs that money and it has every right to take it. I also readlast year that the government is charging such a high excise duty because itwants to offset the deficit incurred by the UPA government due to the grosslydisproportional subsidy the latter had allocated to control prices in 2012.But what I have issues with is the hypocrisy. This Uturn.Didnu2019t the BJP literally fool the people of India by rallying them against thegovernment of the day by lying to them and telling them that the government ispurposefully increasing fuel prices with no valid reasonAnd then when they came to power not only did they not do anything to reducethe price but they wouldnu2019t even let the benefit reach the people when fuelprices reduced by itself.If this is not like the biggest uturn ever I donu2019t know what is.Ask them why and we have senior leaders like the BJPu2019s Minister forEnvironment Alphons Kannanthanam say u201cIt is to instill the idea of reducedfuel consumption among Indians so that we contribute to the envirnoment. Onlyrich people drive vehicles so this price hike shouldnu2019t matter to the poor.u201dYeah like transport of goods and fuel prices are not linked to each other atall. And to think this dude was a decorated IAS officer. Come on manFootnotes1 Modi Governments Defence of High Fuel Prices Is Flimsy2 UPAu2019s fiscal track record by the numbers