Strange are the ways of our political parties. When they are in the opposition, they make all sorts of demands to bring pressure on the ruling party. But when an opposition party comes to power, it forgets what it had demanded in the past.
It applies to all the political parties, irrespective of whether they are national parties or regional parties. And the parties in Andhra Pradesh are no exception.
When YSR Congress party was in the opposition party, it used to cry foul over the ever-increasing prices of petrol and diesel in the state.
YSRC president and then opposition leader Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was taking the then Telugu Desam Party government led by N Chandrababu Naidu in the state and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for burdening the people.
He used to particularly target Naidu for refusing to reduce the state VAT on petrol and diesel. During his padayatra, he made a promise to bring down the VAT on the petroleum products.
But after coming to power, he simply forgot the promise and even raised the VAT in the name of rationalisation.
Same is the case with Chandrababu Naidu, who never bothered to reduce the VAT on petrol and diesel when he was in power.
He even levied Rs 1 on every litre of petrol and diesel apart from VAT. He used police forces to crush any protests against the fuel price hike.
Now that he is in opposition, Naidu is making a hue and cry over the Jagan government’s refusal to bring down the taxes on fuel.
On Saturday, he demanded that the Jagan government should cut rates by Rs 16 to Rs 17 per litre on both petrol and diesel to make fuel prices the lowest in the state.
He said the fuel rates were higher by Rs. 16.75 on petrol and Rs. 16.10 in AP when compared with Chandigarh, and by Rs. 15.70 on petrol and Rs. 10.20 on diesel when compared with Lucknow.
“Jagan Reddy owed an explanation to the public why the fuel rates were the highest in AP contrary to his promise to make them the lowest in the country,” he demanded.
Naidu announced that the TDP would launch a protest in support of its demand for cutting fuel prices in AP. The party cadres would take part in a one-hour dharna from 12 noon to 1 p.m. at all the petrol bunks in the State on November 9.
This is what is called hypocrisy!