A mismanaged oil price hike call leaves Congress in the lurch ...... "The Congress has a death wish...they now believe their neo-liberal economic arguments." A.B. Bardhan, CPI general secretary "The PM has done this in the national interest. The BJP just twists facts around." Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Science "UPA muffed up on the food economy, duties rationalisation. They can't handle a crisis." Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP spokesperson Complex economic data does not make for good politics. Simple slogans do. So in pure political terms, it would seem a pretty suicidal calculation for a government to effect a big oil price hike immediately after an electoral disaster. But the UPA managed to do just that: exactly 10 days after the Congress received an electoral drubbing from the BJP in Karnataka, the Manmohan Singh government announced another shocker for the public. For the party itself, it was two sharp kicks to the shins, and in quick succession. The day after, Congress leaders, never great on self-belief, seemed even more gloomy about the future. And with good reason