Letters to The Editor — May 16, 2026

Burden of fuel hikes

It has become routine for the ruling party at the Centre to keep fuel prices steady whenever elections are near, only to raise them soon after. As late as April 29, the Petroleum Ministry had assured citizens that there would be no hike from May 1. The ₹3 increase in petrol and diesel prices is now being compared with fuel price hikes of 30% to 100% in other countries, as if to suggest that the government has acted reasonably. But such comparisons are not meaningful. India’s cost of living, per capita income, and overall living conditions are different, and the poor and middle classes are unable to absorb the hike and its cascading effects. When global crude oil prices were low in the past, the benefit was not passed on to consumers. The government said the additional revenue was being used for infrastructure development. Yet, one wonders why a portion of that revenue was not set aside in a reserve fund to cushion the impact of rising crude oil prices. Policy measures must be both practical and people-friendly.

V. Nagarajan,

Chennai

The INDIA bloc, its future

The INDIA bloc never really took off at any point in time. The question (Opinion page – ‘Parley’, May 15) contains its answer at the very outset — the Congress is not the principal opponent in many BJP-ruled States. With the defeat of the LDF in Kerala, the TMC in West Bengal, and the Congress extending support to the TVK, much to the chagrin of the ousted DMK, the bloc appears to have suffered its final blow.

T.S. Sanath Kumar,

Thrissur, Kerala