By IANS,
New Delhi: Reacting sharply to the hike in petrol price, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday said it could not have been done without the permission of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
“The companies belong to the government, they control it so the whole responsibility is on the UPA government, the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi… It could not have been done without their permission,” former finance minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.
“It is a midnight massacre. When food inflation figures are added to it, there is only one conclusion that this government is totally insensitive,” he said.
“When the discussion on price rise was taken, the Lok Sabha urged the government to control prices and they promised, so why are their actions against their promise.”
The BJP leader also compared the prices with those in other countries.
“Petrol prices are lower in all key neighbouring country. Petrol price per litre is Rs.41.81 in Pakistan, Rs.50.30 in Sri Lanka, Rs.44.80 in Bangladesh,” he said. “In United States, it is Rs.42.82 per litre.”
The price for petrol was hiked by Rs.1.80 Thursday, to be effective from midnight.