Ref: Interview on CNN with Mr Hardeep Puri
No one can dictate India from where we buy our crude. Govt has clear and declared policy on this. All praise.
India always followed an independent foreign policy and that was not affected by political changes here. Whether Indira, Morarji, Rao , Vajpyee or Singhs they followed similar neutrality with leaning only required as per our genuine needs that too not compromising with fundamental principles of sovereignty.
However diplomacy has cost and people have to bear it out in interest of nation. In this case, India decided to buy cheap oil from severely isolated dictatorship in war, with good reasoning that it needs to fulfil energy requirements of its 1.3 BILLION people, the point emphasised by minister in this interview as well. That’s great. We must support govt wholeheartedly. Every nation does that.
European nations too never disagreed with this and have been themselves buying crude and gas from Russia. They are not doing it clandestinely. So no qualms. Govt must take care of its citizens. We too should be proud of such decisions of our govt. We should get cheap petrol at the pump. Are we getting?
If we follow our sovereign independent policy it should be solely for welfare of people not for opening channel of business convenience for private refiners who are not even selling oil to Indians. All the cheap oil being brought from Russia with pretext of lessening burden on indian citizens should have been used to improve affordability of oil in these tough times, not for the gains of private players who use it to export refined oil and make money.
There was hardly any underlining questioning by the CNN anchor in referred interview regarding as to why India is buying Russian crude. All Europe is doing it. All are proudly doing it for their citizens. The query of CNN here was actually different.
There is twist, in our case which the anchor cleverly made Minister admit. Though it all appears fantastic eloquence pleasing to those who failed to see through the real game, he actually conceded to her.
Here it is, while we the citizens have been told that govt is buying oil from Russia for benefit of our 1.3 Billion people, though the fact is large part of the crude is being picked by private refiners who are mainly export units and primarily sell refined petrol and diesel made out of this Russian discounted crude to other countries which could possibly be disregard to expected international norms. That makes it look like a business proposition benefiting of some private companies indirectly getting aided by Govt’s diplomatic helping hand. It could be an avoidable corollary of the decision but it is perhaps what is happening.
It appears that these private operators are getting hugely discounted crude at diplomatic cost to indian citizens and making money out if it by exporting it. Public may only be getting limited benefit of the out of this deal. Minister on being questioned on this by the anchor says it is done by private players!! Govt is not doing it. Then why we had been proudly told that govt is buying crude from Russia for Indian people. This is not just admittance of the fact but also revelation that Indians are not getting all the benefit of this cheap oil.
I think anchor did her job and Minister could not resist falling for it.
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