A government that was very hesitant to increase prices has not only done it, it has also gone one step ahead and deregulated petrol pricing.
One wonders why!
I think the UPA government has taken this decision to suppress the Bhopal Gas Tragedy / Union Carbide controversy which was promising to snowball into a major issue. The government had to face a lot of adverse media coverage over Warren Anderson's departure from India in wake of the world worst industrial disaster in 1984.
I must say that the UPA leaders have successfully distracted the people from the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. In fact, I would like to further add that the government has successfully got two birds with one stone. Given the fact, that there has not been any major resistance, barring a few unrelated incidents here and there, the government's decision on the fuel price hike will also help recover some of the under-recoveries of the Oil Marketing Companies.
One more observation... I must say that I am also impressed with the timing of the price hike. It was done when the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh was out of the country. It gave the government window for a possible recalling the price hike had there been any major protest from the public to it.
