What it lost along the super busy Vyttila-Edapally stretch of the National Highway on Kerala Formation Day after a fight with actor Joju George, the Congress sought to regain inside the ordered ambience of the Assembly on Tuesday.
Opposition Leader V D Satheesan urged the government to announce a fuel subsidy using the "additional revenue" that has come Kerala's way by way of the frequent increases in fuel prices by the Centre. Neither the Chief Minister nor the finance minister responded to this.
As if to demonstrate it would not be cowed down by criticism, the UDF brought up the fuel price issue in the Assembly the day after its road blockade crumbled into a fight with Joju. It was for the second time this session that the UDF has raised the issue in the Assembly, and this time used its most passionate speaker, Palakkad MLA Shafi Parambil, to move an adjournment motion.
Shafi did not mention Joju but spiritedly argued why it was important to fight against the forever rising fuel prices. He said when Modi took over in 2014, the basic price of the fuel formed 63 per cent of the market price of fuel. Now, he said the basic price constituted just 36 per cent and the rest was made up of various central and state impositions. "This is nothing but 'tax terrorism'," Shafi said.
Finance minister K N Balagopal was generally adopting an academic tone but when there was too much provocative shouting from the UDF side, he referred to the Joju episode. "We have no problems with criticism. But who was it that destroyed the vehicle of actor Joju George and then lied that he was drunk, " the minister said.
Opposition Leader V D Satheesan said his party had held the protest in Kochi in a peaceful manner. "But certain incidents did happen. Let people judge our intentions," he said, without wanting to drag in Joju. "But my humble request to the CPM is, please don't try to teach us how to organise a protest. Had someone barged into your protest, we would have been mourning him now," he said and added: "You are the ones who had bombed a train to undo India's freedom on the basis of your Calcutta Thesis. You who have unleashed a series of violent agitations in Kerala, please don't even try to preach to us," Satheesan said.
On February 28, 1948, during the second party congress of the CPI in Calcutta, the party made a call for armed insurrection. The CPI's then line was that India's freedom was a mere sham and that India would exist as a semi-colony of the British.
At the mention of the Calcutta Thesis, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stood up. It looked as if he was about to point to historical inaccuracy. Instead, with a half mischievous smile, he pulled in Joju. "I hope you had heard what your party president said, " the Chief Minister began. K Sudhakaran had said that Joju was drunk. "Shouldn't you have checked before you make such statements, " Vijayan said.
In turn, Satheesan said that it would be in the interest of justice if the Chief Minister also cross-checked with the policemen on duty. "It was these policemen who told our workers to show restraint as Joju was in a highly sloshed state," Satheesan said. Joju was left there.
Satheesan used the occasion to counter the CPM's oft-repeated argument that it was the UPA government's deregulation of petrol prices in the country that had led to the current crisis.
Satheesan argued that deregulation, as envisaged by the UPA government, would have turned out to be beneficial for the country.
He said in 2010 when petrol prices were first deregulated, the price of crude oil was at a record high of 145 dollars a barrel. But then, the price of petrol was Rs 50.6 a litre. Now, when the crude oil price is 82 dollars a barrel, petrol costs Rs 112 a litre. "If the BJP government had stuck to the UPA model of reducing prices when crude oil costs fall, petrol prices in the country would have hovered around Rs 30 a litre," Satheesan said. "When crude prices fell, this government instead of passing on the benefits, kept on imposing higher cesses and additional excise duties on fuel," he said.
Balagopal said Kerala could not do much as it was facing a severe fiscal crisis. "We understand the state's predicament. But what we are asking the government is to share with the people a part of your ever-growing additional revenue that would automatically accumulate in your account whenever the Centre increases the fuel prices," he said.
He gave some examples where the government could offer fuel subsidies. He said KSRTC was now planning to take children to school. Under the plan, each child will have to shell out Rs 157 daily for their transport. "Why can't you make this free and transfer the amount as fuel subsidy to KSRTC, " he said.
Fuel subsidies can be given to fishermen and auto and taxi drivers, too. In the case of fishermen, Satheesan said a subsidy of Rs 20 per litre can be offered. For drivers, a small portion of their daily fuel needs, say five litres, could be provided at subsidised rates.
