Jammu Tawi, Nov 5: After the victory of the Congress party in the
bye-elections to various seats, senior Congress leader and Former
Minister J&K Yogesh Sawhney commented that the recent drop in fuel and
oil prices and other such moves have neither come out of the goodness
of the hearts of the BJP leaders nor out of sympathy for the common
man, but in fact, it has come out of their desperation to win the
losing support of the people of India. The victory of the Congress
party has come as a big jolt to the BJP which did not expect such
results. The performance of the Congress party in the polls in
Himachal Pradesh on October 30 is only one proof among many of the
changing trends in the country. After a difficult two years, people
are realising the true faces of the leaders of the ruling party. The
positive results for the Congress in the bye-elections is evidence
that people are giving their stamp-of-approval to the Congress party
and a goodbye to the BJP, Sawhney said.
The Congress party retained all three assembly seats and one Lok Sabha
seat in Himachal Pradesh. Congress also scored a clear win in
Rajasthan by-polls. It also snatched the Hangal Assembly constituency
from the ruling party in Karnataka. After seeing the positive
performance of Congress, the BJP in fear and out of an urge to gain
the support of people lowered excise duty on petrol and diesel. Not
only the Centre but many BJP ruled states also lowered their VAT.
These steps could have been taken before since the people have been
crying for help for way longer than this. Amid the pandemic, the job
losses, the skewed economy, the income losses and the health crisis,
people had to endure the harsh pain of heavy prices while the
government sat silently in their offices and on media channels
boasting off of free vaccinations. If this step is taken to reduce the
financial burden on the people of the country, then why did the BJP
take so long and what was it waiting for? The problem of excessive
fuel prices has been at the forefront for two years, why only now did
the government wake up to it? These are questions one must ask to
understand the true intentions of the BJP, said Sawhney. Political
gimmicks are what they’re best at and this is one example of just how
they would like to twist the narrative and mould the public opinion
back in their favour. Sawhney said that this change in heart came from
the change in winds in the political scenario of the country. People
are now aggravated with the false promises and hollow boasts of the
country’s ruling party which was reflected in the bypoll results. This
led to the Centre government taking a decisive step to lower excise
duties on petrol and diesel. It was not a Diwali gift, it was a Diwali
gimmick, stated Sawhney.
Speaking further on the issue, the former Minister said that if this
is what it takes to get the government to care about the people of the
country, then it is shameful. The more Assembly and Parliamentary
seats they lose, the more drop we will see in fuel prices. Prices of
fuel affect all the people of this country both directly or indirectly
whether they own vehicles or not. So using fuel as leverage is to play
with people’s lives in the worst of times. The season of festivity was
overshadowed by the financial troubles in the lives of the common man
because of the crooked policies of the Centre. Their corporate-centred
policies are driving the nation into poverty and unemployment and the
rich-poor divide is widening. All of these and more has led to the
failure of the BJP in the various bypolls. Since it is hard for them
to digest failure they will use many gimmicks to win back the support
of the people but they must realise that the people of this country
are not foolish, stated Sawhney.
The simple fact is that the government has failed the country in most
areas but especially on the economic front. The battered economy has
taken many blows due to the government’s incompetence in ruling the
nation. No section of society, except perhaps the ultra-rich, is
contended with the state of affairs today and that itself is proof
enough of their failure in leading India. Another fact is that the
lowering of fuel prices is a well planned and orchestrated move by the
BJP to counter political losses in the by-polls. The timing of the
move indicates this very clearly. In an economy where the official
growth rate contracted by 7.5 per cent, fuel prices is an extremely
important issue. Central revenue from taxing petroleum products has
multiplied more than five-times in these last seven years so reduction
of ₹5-10 is not going to cut it. The reduction in prices is a
consequence of the bypolls which shows the power of the people in our
country and it shows the power of democracy. Sawhney stated that the
people must stand against the policies of this government like they
did in the bye-elections and and bringout positive change.
