Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan (file)
| Photo Credit: H. VIBHU
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) Opposition walked out of the Assembly on Tuesday, accusing Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan of being dismissive of the plight of ordinary people, on whom the surge in fuel and cooking gas prices has fallen the hardest.
Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said Mr Satheesan “skimmed over the pain” ordinary households endure due to supply chain chaos caused by the US-Iran war by “offhandedly replying” that the government would “examine the matter”.
He said Mr Satheesan had perfunctorily prefaced the debate on the LDF’s notice for an adjournment debate on the crisis with a general comment.
Mr Vijayan said the Chief Minister sought to raise the bogey of publishing a White Paper on Kerala’s finances in a vain bid to petrify the LDF, instead of articulating a clear plan to address the crisis at hand.
“Kerala is waiting to see whether Mr Satheesan will practice what he preached as former Leader of the Opposition by forsaking the tax revenue on fuel”, Mr Vijayan said.
Mr Vijayan said the Congress-led UPA government had earlier divested the Central government of the power to regulate fuel prices and entrusted the authority to oil companies, which are “motivated more by profiteering than by the cost-of-living concerns of ordinary families.”
‘National sovereignty undermined’
He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre now merely pursued the Congress’s policy by giving oil companies free rein to regulate prices at will, with zero concern for the ordinary consumer.
Mr Vijayan said the BJP unabashedly undermined national sovereignty by halting the purchase of low-priced crude from Russia at the US’s instance.
Satheesan’s reply
Mr Satheesan replied that the LDF’s grouse that the UDF was not forsaking tax revenue to mitigate the fuel price hike was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. He said the LDF had slapped a ₹2 cess on fuel and diesel, further burdening the common folk reeling under an unchecked seller-driven inflation-driven cost-of-living crisis.
“The ill-thought-out decision cost the State hundreds of crores in fuel tax revenue. Truckers and interstate buses tanked up from fuel outlets on Kerala’s border with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Inter-State diesel smuggling cost the State exchequer dear”, he said.
Mr Satheesan said the government would devise methods to mitigate the “inflationary pressure” mounting on Kerala due to the fuel price hike and plummeting remittances from the Gulf caused by the war.
Both the ruling front and the Opposition raised the spectre of the Iran-US war-spurred energy inflation, threatening economic recession and loss of livelihood. They said the steep rise in cooking gas prices could upend careful family budgeting and cripple the hotel and tourism industry.
Former Finance Minister K N Balagopal moved the Rule 50 notice. Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan rejected the LDF’s demand for an adjournment debate on the fuel price crisis.
Published – June 02, 2026 01:03 pm IST
