Opposition has made up its mind to stay in opposition, says Hardeep Puri

NEW DELHI: Petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday criticised opposition parties for offering subsidies that are not targeted in states rules by them and for disrupting proceedings in Parliament.

Puri pointed to the levels of bankruptcy in many states while noting that there might be “good intentions” behind subsidies in areas such as transport and energy. During an interaction with journalists to highlight the achievements of the Modi government over the past nine years in foreign and trade policy, he also pointed to the way some neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka are struggling with debt.

“A subsidy has to be targeted at those who are the most vulnerable, it has to be targeted in a manner that it brings relief, but a subsidy cannot get entrenched for all time [as it will lead to the] killing of all competition,” he said.

Asked about the opposition raising sectarian tensions in Manipur and Haryana within Parliament, Puri said: “In a democracy, opposition must be allowed to speak, but I think they’ve made up their mind that they’re going to be in the opposition for all their lives.”

The value of Parliament lies in the opposition’s “ability to put us on the mat”, but these parties had created hurdles for themselves by laying preconditions when the government offered to have a discussion on issues such as the situation in Manipur, he said. “If you want to run a country, there is no other way than the Modi way, which is you take responsibility and you bite the bullet in terms of taking the hard decision to do it,” he added.

Puri, who also holds the housing and urban affairs portfolio, listed numerous achievements of the NDA government and its plans to make India a developed nation by 2047. In the realm of trade policies, he said free trade agreements (FTAs) signed in the past had “fundamental flaws”, including loosely framed provisions for rules of origin.

Without naming China, Puri suggested “one major supplier” had been able to take advantage of these provisions on rules of origin and this had impacted manufacturing industries across the world and made them vulnerable.

Responding to a question on India’s purchases of discounted Russian crude and the possibility of a cut in fuel prices, Puri said the country will continue to do well “if we are able to play the market card”. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has cut production from 102 million barrels per day (bpd) to 97 million bpd, and the discounts offered by Moscow were no longer as high as they were when India ramped up purchases of Russian crude, he said.

Puri also spoke of India’s plans to bolster its refining capacity, which currently stands at 252 million metric tonnes a year, with another 50 million metric tonnes in the pipeline. There are also plans to expand this figure to about 450 million metric tonnes a year.

India is set to become one of the world’s largest producers in this sector and it is already the fourth largest refining hub. With the focus on the reduction of fossil fuels, refineries wont’ produce just petrol and diesel but also green hydrogen, he said.

Puri also spoke of the government’s other achievements in foreign trade policy, ranging from improved ties with countries in West Asia to the focus on the Global South, in terms of sharing resources and capacity. He also pointed to India being held up by others as the “bright spot” in the global economy, with the country’s growth rate expected to be between 6.1% and 6.5% in 2023-24.