Roll back oil price hike: Left

The Left parties today demanded a "total rollback on the hike in prices of petrol and related products".

CPI parliamentary party leader Gurudas Dasgupta spearheaded the attack, saying the Left was not consulted before the government decided to hike rates across the board.

"The Left is in a unique position of being a supporter of the government without being part of it, but we must say the price hike on petrol and related products was done without consulting us, at a time when global prices were declining," he said.

In a scathing attack on Finance Minister P Chaidam-baram, he asked him to "tell the petroleum firms, even the private firms, now quarrelling among themselves, to take a dip in profits." The total burden of global pricing should not be put on the consumer's shoulders, he added.

"It is our suspicion that the government is using the price rise to mop up additional revenue. We advise the government to look at other avenues to raise revenue, including the multi-crore wedding industry," he said.

He, however, distanced the Left from a similar issue raised by the BJP. "We are different from the BJP and want to register our point separately," he said.

The BJP has been daring the Left to go with it and against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on a discussion on inflation.

"We want to call the Left's bluff by asking for a discussion on inflation under Section 184, which allows voting on the discussion. If the Left is really serious about the plight of the people, it will vote against the government," said BJP spoke-sman VK Malhotra.

The debate, right now allowed under Section 193, will take place tomorrow. But it is up to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to decide whether voting will be allowed or not.

For the government, the unexpectedly fierce attack by their own allies was a bolt from the blue, one that is expected to get worse as the session goes by.