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 It is high time that all oil-buying countries, particularly India and China, should come together to put pressure on OPEC countries to reduce prices by curtailing their imports. The price of crude oil was expected to reach $100 a barrel in 10 years or even later, but we are already shockingly close to this mark.

India’s imports of crude oil have already begun crushing our economy. Government oil companies are making huge losses selling petrol, diesel and kerosene at subsidised rates. If the prices are not brought down, either the subsidies will subside and the oil companies will go bankrupt, or prices of oil products will be revised upwards. For our huge middle and lower class population, the effect is going to be economically devastating. As it is, India is today among the highest consumers of diesel. Many of our trains run on diesel. And since we do not have enough electricity, homes and industrial units across India cannot do without diesel-guzzling generators and captive power units. All this consumption could have been cut had we been taking the promise of alternative sources of energy seriously, but on the contrary, we have done our best to put the Indo-US nuclear deal in a state of jeopardy.

Another solution: all big oil-buying countries should come together and form a consortium to pressurise OPEC. Also focusing more on other oil-producing countries outside OPEC, like Russia, Mexico and Sudan, can be a better bargaining tactic. Governments should also promote the use of CNG and LNG to reduce oil consumption.

Slow track

Regular railway travellers would have noticed how the state of Shatabdi Express trains, supposedly India’s best and among the fastest trains, has become deplorable over the years. The idea for Shatabdi came from Madhav Rao Scindia, who dreamt of connecting metros with other major cities of the country with minimum stops and therefore minimum possible time. It met with success in the early years.

The situation started deteriorating when Shatabdi trains began adding more and more stops, increasing their journey time. For example, the New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi took two hours and fifty minutes to complete its journey in the early days. It has become more than four hours now. Similarly, the Shatabdi between New Delhi and Bhopal takes more than nine hours now, from seven hours in the early days.

Political pressure is the only reason for this state of affairs. Elected representatives and other leaders of the smallest of cities that are on the route of a Shatabdi force the railways to add a stop at their cities. I am afraid that the Rajdhani and the newly introduced Sampark Kranti trains will soon face similar pressures.

The writer is a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha