In a strange parody of events, there is a chilled silence from most quarters in the face of zooming rises in subsidized gas cylinder prices.
This is not as if India is not undergoing hard times with heavy job losses, economic dips, and rising prices on everything including higher taxes. This hushed tranquility on soaring costs was not the case when the Congress government was in power and gas prices were relatively low at around Rs 414 per cylinder. At that time, the global recession was swinging dangerously on the economic pendulum. When the Congress government raised the gas prices a bit, there were strong protests from the Bharatiya Janata Party and loud noises from television media, which triggered citizens to go on a rant.
Under the Narendra Modi Government within the span of 7 years, the prices of subsidized cooking gas shot up by 16 percent, from Rs 414 per cylinder in May 2014 to Rs 479.77 in August 2017 to the present steep rise of Rs. 795.50. All this rise in price was in spite of global crude oil prices dropping to about 49 percent.
Just over 2 months, the price rose to Rs. 175:
In December 2020, the price rose by Rs 100
On February 4, 2021, the price rose by Rs 25
On February 14, 2021, the price rose to Rs 50
But why aren’t we talking about it?
The Congress party asks, “Where is Mrs. Smriti Irani now?” She had engaged in very dramatic protests over the small gas hike during the Congress rule. But, of course, she would be silent because she is from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
While the Congress on Monday demanded an immediate rollback of hike in prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG cylinders, citing the Center being insensitive towards the difficulties of the citizens, but there is no budge from the Central Government.
Before the BJP came into power in 2014, the fuel price rise was one of the strongest issues that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used to take up. They did a bike rally organized by the Delhi unit of the BJP in 2013, led by senior party leaders, and drove to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s residence. BJP party workers broke barriers and tried to enter the CM’s residence, resulting in the police using water cannons. The media captured those and the BJP capitalized big on that.
The situation today is very different and one analyses it for these reasons:
Citizens are silent because:
Media: Unlike the UPA era where media had a free hand, today the press is muffled. Switch on the channels in the heat of the farmers’ protests and the channels will be discussing the COVID curve, and the astonishing control the BJP government had over the pandemic, unlike other nations. The media is overwhelmingly gushing about the achievements of the government. Or Godi media would be screaming about the anti-nationals Khalistani links of agitating farmers. The media today is remote-controlled by the government in a way never witnessed before. We rarely saw the farmers’ protests or any protests shown in sequential order as was shown during the UPA era.
Today, most of our news today is caught on Twitter with videos shared and independent journalists reporting news on group. Therefore, it is stunning when in the heat of so many protests, the media chose to ignore it. A sense of betrayal fills many when the media chose to ignore citizens’ voices.
The television media is eventually forced to touch on these topics in the evening news when Twitter hashtags reach zooming trends. While the media does touch on fuel hikes, it has not struck the public as strongly. Turn on the channels and you will find them breezing through different topics, and touch on a few more strongly. Most of the media channels never criticize the government, unlike the UPA days, when they were screaming blue murder for the rise in fuel and gas prices.
Revolutions already going on in India: Since 2014, India has been going through some intensified situations. It first started with demonetization, which depleted most people’s finances, people lost businesses and many lost all their money. Then there was the Hindu Muslim divide with lynching by cow vigilantes on Muslims. JNU students and other students also were targeted, attacked, arrested, and bad-named as “terrorists.” After that was the anti-CAA revolution where more than half the nation rose against the CAA implementation. COVID-19 struck and ended the protests. PRotests rose again now with the farmers’ revolution, being the largest revolution in world history. With that was the arrests of journalists, activists on worrying scales. People are exhausted from one issue to another. Suddenly, making a noise about the gas price rise seemed incongruous.
Coronavirus: The Opposition though speaking vociferously about it has not hit the streets as aggressively because the Covid-19 has hindered a lot of movement and people are already on the streets for the farmers, and other deep pressing issues. People also have enough on their plate added to the coronavirus stalking lives, so the movement against the steep gas hikes is cloaked up. The pandemic is not yet over yet as we know. Right now, a South African Brazilian variant of coronavirus has entered India.
Lost jobs, depression: People have lost jobs, money, lost their loved ones to the pandemic and many have lost everything to the degree they don’t have the energy to hit the streets.
Depression is sinking in many people. Over the last few years, the climate of hate and division has heightened to greater intensities. There is a rise in suicides all over the country and just in a few years, India has seen Bollywood actors taking their lives in an unprecedented manner. Something clearly is not right.
Independent journalists clamped: Many journalists are being arrested for reporting the news and that has also clamped down on the spirit of journalism, stifled free reporting. In all this, somehow, the price rise of gas seemed fairly insignificant in the face of bigger glaring issues.
Sinking in the miry clay of this complex paraphernalia, people have lost the josh to protest about the rise in gas cylinder prices.
