Common man’s agony

With the prices of oil in the international market racing upward every day, petrol prices in India are very high. India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing criticism from all corners of the country. There are constant attacks from the opposition parties and the media, but the government remains nonchalant. It appears that crying will not yield results.

This issue will make a dent in the government’s benchmark of achievements. The current price in the global market is $77 (Dh283) a barrel, then why is the domestic price Rs88 (Dh4.48) per litre?

The B JP-led National Democratic Alliance claims that the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government had accumulated a huge backlog of subsidiary amounts and burdened oil companies, resulting in a massive debt. The common man will not understand this logic. All he or she is interested in is that at the end of the day, what is the petrol price and whether it will burden them or not? The government should not look for implausible and shallow reasons as a safety net. It needs to introspect on people’s feelings and take measures on a war footing. An immediate and possible solution is to find a way to reduce taxes.

If not acted upon now, the whole issue will have a cascading effect on the government and opposition parties will leave no stone unturned to reap the maximum benefit out of the current chaos. Let the government stand for the common poor people. The reader is a resident

■ of Abu Dhabi.