Something needed to be done. The question was what and how. The opposition needed to be taken into confidence. After all, if there is a change in government next year and the NDA is back in office — a prospect that is looking increasingly likely — it too would be required to face the same problem in the event of imported oil prices continuing to soar. Some experts are predicting the price to cross the $ 200-per-barrel barrier. The opposition would have given some suggestions, just as the Left parties, which support the UPA government, have already done. The CMs too could have been told to carry a part of the burden. And they too, in turn, could have given some suggestions. How different would have been the scenario if all the CMs, following consultations with and an appeal from the PM, had taken a common stand on the issue, rather than Sonia Gandhi trying to take political mileage by asking Congress CMs to reduce state taxes on petroleum products?

The entire issue of energy security and energy conservation, with a focus on the need to attain maximum self-reliance and self-sufficiency, and also on the paramount need to insulate the poor and the middle classes from the impact of a hike in prices of petroleum products, would have then become a point of national debate and national obligation. Out of this process of patient and persistent dialogue at different levels, some kind of national consensus might have arisen.

Energy security is by no means the only issue on which India needs to build broad political consensus. There are many others: food security; administrative reforms; need for a federal agency to effectively deal with threats to internal security, such as terrorism and naxal violence, that require strong Centre-state and inter-state coordination; India’s stand on the global climate change agenda; and so on.

... contd.