PM courts CPI on oil price hike

To bring on board all the four Left parties on the petroleum price hike, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met the leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) today.

Only the CPI(Marxist) was invited to yesterday's meeting during which Singh told the Left leaders that the price hike could not be put off any further.

Today's meeting had a similar agenda. "We had a long discussion with the prime minister and discussed all angles of the issue. Unfortunately, it appears that the prime minister is thinking in terms of a rise," CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan said.

Besides Bardhan, the meeting was attended by CPI's D Raja and AIFB leader Debabrata Biswas. The Revolutionary Socialist Party had conveyed its inability to attend the meeting. The prime minister alone represented the government, as he did at the meeting with the CPI(M) yesterday.

It appeared from what the prime minister conveyed to the Left leaders that the meetings of the Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs were postponed today in order to formally convey the news of the hike to all the Left parties.

"We told the prime minister that we would oppose any hike in the prices of petrol and diesel," Bardhan said. But, when he was asked what was the purpose of today's meeting given that the government was already aware of the Left position, Bardhan said the prime minister might have wanted to "argue" out all aspects of the issue.

"Even if the prime minister had called us yesterday, we would have said the same thing," Bardhan said. He added that he was hopeful the prices of kerosene and LPG would not be hiked.

Asked whether their five-point suggestions to minimise the impact of the price hike on the common man had been taken into account, Bardhan said, "Even after considering them, they (government) feel that the prices have to be increased."

Asked by when the hike would be effected, Bardhan said, "May be in a day or two." And on whether the Left will protest against it, Bardhan was non-committal: "Let them announce the hike first." Whether the prime minister has blunted the Left agitation plans with his meetings will be evident only after the price hike.