At a deeper level, the re-regulation of the petroleum sectors throws up questions of the sanctity of the institutions of decision-making. After all, the ‘R’ group report was not a casual exercise. It involved the executive and the legislative arms of the government. It passed parliamentary scrutiny and was endorsed by the cabinet. To have it then so summarily bypassed suggests an erosion of the nature of the relationship between the different organs of our government.

Everyone knows, of course, the reasons why ‘R’ group recommendations have been bypassed. It is because politicians fear a voter backlash to high prices. They see this as good reason for sublimating economic logic and institutional propriety to populist irrationalism. But is that reason enough to ignore the Solomonic forewarning 3000 years back, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish’, or Churchill’s relatively more recent comment, ‘the era of procrastination’ will inevitably give way to ‘a period of consequences’.

The writer is chairman, Shell Group in India. Views are personal