Says Fuel Price Rise Unjustified, Wants PM To Resign Gauging that it could only add to the its ammunition against the government in a year leading up to the Lok Sabha polls, BJP on Wednesday reacted strongly to the government's decision to hike fuel prices, saying a "directionless' UPA has unleashed "economic terror' on the nation. Sounding almost as if the poll campaign has begun, the Opposition party demanded that the Prime Minister should quit for having announced such a steep hike that could only add to the woes of the common man manifold. "If the price rise is inevitable then the exit of the Prime Minister and the government is also inevitable,' BJP spokesperson Rajeev Pratap Rudy said. Saying that the impact of this fuel price rise is set to hit every household in the country since LPG prices have also been raised, Rudy remarked that the government's reasons for the price rise is not justified. Reminding the Prime Minister that "he was not heading the IMF or the OPEC countries but the Indian nation', Rudy implied that he should have had more concern for the people who are bound to be hit badly by the fuel price hike. With people already reeling under inflation and price rise and the Opposition already using it against the Congress-led UPA to campaign in assembly polls like the recent one in Karnataka, the rise in prices of petroleum products can only add to the woes of the ruling coalition. "This action is disastrous for the economy and all the claims made by the Prime Minister so far on the front on inflation have proved to be a hoax,' Rudy said. The government, he said, which has run out of ideas has now unleashed this economic terror on the nation. "This decision is the last straw for the UPA government and the last nail in the coffin of the common man, whose interests it claim to champion,' he said. Ridiculing the Left parties' opposition to the petrol price hike, he said that the remarks of the Communists are "hypocritical' as they are part and parcel of this decision. OVERBURDENED: BJP workers protest against price hike in Ranchi on Wednesday Hike in election year tough but unavoidable, says Congress TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: Putting up a brave front, Congress termed the sharp hike in fuel prices as a harsh but unavoidable step which the government had to take in the larger national interest. "The UPA government decided to bite the bullet,' party spokesman Manish Tewari said admitting that the measure would be hurting. He said that the government had taken a stern decision in the wake of the sharp rise in crude prices in the global market trying to cushion the common man to the extent possible. Even after the increase, the subsidy on petrol is Rs 16.43 a litre, Rs 28.58 on diesel and Rs 303 per LPG cylinder, Tewari said. "The government took a harsh decision in a difficult situation keeping political consideration behind,' he said. He, however, refuted the BJP allegation that the UPA government had acted recklessly like an "economic terrorist'. He said that the NDA regime had raised fuel prices more often and at a sharper rate without compelling reasons. "They should have looked at their track record,' Tewari said reeling out data about the comparative hikes. For example, through two raises in 1999 and 2004, the NDA government had increased cooking gas price by Rs 109.60 whereas even after the current raise the comparative figure for the UPA years is Rs 83.15. Tewari added that all the UPA allies had been taken into confidence and hoped that the state governments would slash sales tax to lessen the impact. Despite such spirited defence, there is an admission in Congress circles that the increase in oil prices could not have come at a more difficult time