One week ago, Pranab Mukherjee‘s first full budget in the UPA’s second innings, with the proposal to increase duty on petroleum products, sparked the first ever walkout by a combined opposition in the name of the aam admi and aurat.
The move has been variously interpreted as a sign of a pumped-up Congress ditching the common man; as a triumph of IMF-driven neoliberalist policies; even as the return of anti-Congress politics. Some commentators have even pulled out their calculators to do the numbers.
Well, The Telegraph, Calcutta, has some news for all those frothing at the mouth.
Using government data, the paper exposes the “economic amnesia and political compulsions” behind the breast-beating over rising prices. The price of the “fuel of the poor” went up by 258% during the eight-year non-Congress period from 1996 as against 2% in the last six years and so on.
Also read: From: Signora Sonia. To: Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi
churumuri 
small correction required:
during 96-98 , india was ruled by thirdfront with the support of Congress.
NDA was formed only in 1998..However not sure whether any radical reduction in % if we calculate from 98 to 2004..
**
and also during 98, diesel costing around 15 Rs/ litr .. and had it got increased by 10 Rs then , % rise would have been 67%.. where as now diesel is 38 and increase in 20 rs also attributes percentage rise 52 % !!..
But I am not sure whteher sushma or Ananthu were calculated these things before walking out of parliment..
LikeLike
According to the table NDA was in power from 1996-2004?
But from 1996-1999 it was third front with support from congress (save 13 days of 1996 for Vajpayee government )
From 1999-2004 was NDA government
LikeLike
This is just number porn. Please provide inflation data, crude oil prices, non-oil tax revenues, fiscal deficit atleast to make a decent comparison.
LikeLike
Kodlady:
>increased by 10 Rs then , % rise would have been 67%..
We can’t count increases with absolute rupees. The right thing to do is to calculate percentage increase, as the value of rupee would’ve reduced as well.
LikeLike
Karihaida is right.. we need more data, cause NDA hiked much more, infact there was fuel hike 4 times in 6 months…. they were absolutely crazy. NDA had no idea how to handle the situation… nooobs
LikeLike
There is something called the base effect which makes the subsequent numbers small when in percentages but big in absolute numbers.
LikeLike
Great comment Karihiada, laughing my brains off.
This congress mouthpiece is feeling the pressure after their ‘aad-aadmi’ propaganda is coming apart at its seams, like all propaganda does. The ONLY defense that they every provide is to dig out some obscure numbers from 10 years ago to justify why they are screwing the poor! Pretty pathetic. I am quite sure people who are buying 40 Rs a kg vegetables are least interested in what the statistics looked 10 years ago. This is the prime example of absolute hubris and being out of touch with people’s concerns, all for sheer politicking.
LikeLike
churumuri,,,,churumuri,,,,,, how much u guys will fall….
96-98 was 3rd front with support of cong. how can u put that in NDA ??
Second, compare inflation figures… not %hikes… What matters to aam aadmi is the consumer price index based inflation… u will never compare those numbers because u know that NDA kept it under control…
do u think ur readers are stupid ??
LikeLike
When ever a new party is voted to power, it becomes very clear that the people expect the new Government to do better than the previous one and not show their hand at the previous government for their failure, saying that “they did not do well so are we”.
It is a shame and amounts to cheating as they promise before the elections that they would do better if voted to power.
LikeLike
Churumuri, impossible to hide your bias and give a fair and balanced opinion, isn’t it? Whoever is the author of this post would make a spectacular statistician. As Karihaida says, this is just number porn.
LikeLike
churumuri churumuri,
trying to pull a fast one by peddling dubious statistics? works in national media, where knowledge of true statistics averages out(pardon the pun).
but out here, in blogosphere, where you meet real people, this is what happens when you feel uppity enough to vet reader’s post but not humble enough to actually read them.
churumuri your audience includes people who can diss papoulis. now who is papoulis? papoulis is perhaps only(merely) one of the most celebrated author on arcane stuff like probability theory which then is bedrock of statistics. i’m not talking sophomores, with allu illa illu illa urge to theorize, but real practicing sages of the science of numbers, including those not seduced by the menaka known as financial engineering. these yagnvalkyas and even ashtavakras swear by papoulis.
churumuri allow me to remind you, you are dealing with mysoreans perhaps the most understated people in all of the country. esoteric physics like those crystals(right there in UoM), string theory(out there in mumbai), fundamental math of estimation and statistics our townsmen are right there.
so please before you peddle dubious statistics kindly think. infact in 99.99% of the cases you will be better off holding publishing party brochures and propoganda especially when it deals with numbers. you are better off peddling vague, unquantifiable fields like social “sciences”. that is more safer.
LikeLike
Mark Twain Said there are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics.
LikeLike
Numbers don’t lie.
No wonder, in a recent survey, not a single BJP leder figured in the top 60 of the most trusted politicians in India .
No wonder they keep losing elections after elections.
People realise that shrill politics does not pay, they rather vote in govts. which perform.
LikeLike
Without considering inflation and all other factors these are meaningless comparisons. Why UPA has to bring in the comparison between NDA always. If there is a terror strike in Mumbai they escape citing the Kandahar hijack. This is a worthless government and the media is equally worthless with their diversionary focus on My name is khan and MF Hussain. Who cares for price rise.
LikeLike
Ah Simpleji, there you are again! We will see this time when elections come around…perhaps you should consider ‘Simplistic’ as your new moniker?
LikeLike
wow, who compiled this data? nam chapli thogondu naave hodkobeku nam deshadalli intha “statisticians” idaralla antha
LikeLike
NDA raised the prices of petroleum products X times, therefore we are doing it now.
NDA had lot of terror attacks during its rule, therefore it is no big deal that we are having it now.
Blah, blah, blah….
Very pathetic response from a party which was in power for more than 50 years out of 60 years of our independence. If this is the best they can come up with, then is it any wonder why we remained a third world country for the best part of our independence??
Take 2007-08. The international oil prices were zooming up. But we did not have price rise in essential commodities as we have today. A very good opportunity for any half brained FM to increase the prices of petroleum to offset the losses incurred by the oil companies. But did they do it? We all know the answer. With an eye on elections, the party did not deem it fit to raise the prices even if it meant bad for the oil companies and economy.
I wonder what would have happened had UPA lost the elections and NDA had come to power. They would not have been left with any choice but to make up for the misdeeds of UPA in terms of oil price management. Which means a perfect opportunity for the Churumuri brigade to bring out comparisons like this!!!
Incidentally, this price hike is not going to benefit the common man, that much is known for everyone. But is it going to help the oil companies, who are bleeding every day crores of rupees because of the bad economic decisions of the government? Sadly, the answer is a big NO here too. Because the price hike is effected through increase in the Customs duty & Excise duty on the petroleum products. This means, any additional income the government earns on this is fully going into its coffers.
To spend on Rajiv this, Indira that, Nehru something else, to entertain the prince and his queen mother….
And people have the gumption to support this kind of price raise!!!
LikeLike
Dodda Buddi
Elections are here. This month, To BBMP. Watch this space.
LikeLike
Telegraph statistitian deserves Nobel prize for Economics. This kind of comparison should be included in statistical analysis syllabus world wide! Its more useful and highly applicable than it actually looks.
LikeLike