A praiseworthy aspect of democracy is that governments cannot but be responsive to public sentiments. So too with the decision by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday to cut the price of cooking gas by Rs 200 per cylinder. With the count-down having begun for fresh parliament elections, the Modi government cannot afford to remain impervious to the rising anger against the steep rise in prices of not just essential commodities but all materials across the board. This tendency was evident since the Covid-19 period and in recent times prices of essentials have sky-rocketed. The failure of the Opposition to take the government to task is only proof of a lack of assertiveness, or even vacillation at its leadership levels. The situation is compounded by the fact that there has been no matching rise in the wages or salaries of the employed. The saga is more pronounced among the 80 per cent of the populace who are not well-heeled. The poor and the middle class are struggling to make ends meet. In this backdrop, the decisions by the Union Cabinet to substantially reduce the price of cooking gas and extend the Ujwala LPG subsidy to 75 lakh women will be well-appreciated. However, a review of the prices across the spectrum is in order.
It must be noted, in this context, that the LPG gas price per cylinder was at Rs 410 when Prime Minister Modi took charge of the nation in 2014. In less than 10 years, it rose to about Rs 1100. The government should have acted early and controlled the price. It acted late also in the case of a steep rise in prices of tomatoes, or onions later, and chose to have imports of the former from Nepal only by the time the new crop was about to flood the market. A responsive government should have a finger on the pulse of the markets so as to enable it to act at the right time. The Indian agricultural market as a whole continues to be ruled by the whims and greed of the middle men. The farmers get too little, while the consumers are dealt a rude shock time after time by the steep rise in commodity prices; the reason cited often being “low production” or natural calamities like floods or weather changes. Fact is, cartels rule the markets, and consumers pay through their noses to buy various items. It is rare that the farmers get a fair share of the prices quoted in the market. The farm reform legislation was left in the lurch as the Modi government could not withstand pressure from various lobbies in the run-up to a set of assembly polls in UP, Punjab etc.
