The scene at a petrol station in West Delhi as petrol and diesel prices were hiked by ₹3 per liter across all variants. | Photo credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
The fuel price hike announced by the Union government on Friday (May 15, 2026), days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured victory in assembly elections in three out of five states, including West Bengal, where it formed a government for the first time, drew sharp criticism from the opposition. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the public is being made to pay for the mistakes of the Narendra Modi government.
Petrol and diesel prices rose by ₹3 per litre, the first increase in more than four years, as state fuel retailers passed on some of the impact of soaring global oil prices following the Iran war.
In a post in Hindi on X, Mr Gandhi said: “Galti Modi sarkaar ki, keemat janta chukayegi (the public will pay the price for the Modi government’s mistake). The ₹3 shock has already arrived, the rest of the ‘vasooli (recovery)’ will be done in installments,” he said.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh pointed out that when international oil prices fell, the benefit was not passed on to Indian consumers. “Now that international oil prices are on the rise due to the war in West Asia unleashed by the Prime Minister’s good friends – the US and Israel – and the parliamentary elections over, the Modi government has increased the prices of petrol and diesel after significantly increasing commercial LPG prices earlier. This is bound to lead to further inflation which is now estimated to be close to 6% for this financial year.”
Trinamool Congress president Derek O’Brien has questioned whether the newly elected BJP government in West Bengal will reduce the value added tax (VAT) on fuel. On X, he wrote: “Will the Bengal government reduce VAT on petrol and diesel now that there is a Delhi-controlled government that doesn’t have to worry about funds being blocked by the Centre?”
Left-wing parties have called for the price hike to be scrapped. In a statement, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said the hike would “impose more burden” on people already facing inflation, unemployment, stagnant wages and economic hardship. It also disputed claims by oil companies that they are facing a “lackluster recovery” due to rising global oil prices. “The very term ‘under-recovery’ is a misnomer. It does not indicate the actual losses incurred by OMCs; rather, it refers to the hypothetical deficit between current revenues and the larger profits they would earn if fuel prices were allowed to rise further,” the party said. She added that the hike was delayed by the Union government in view of the elections.
CPI general secretary D. Raja said the burden of the increase would be reflected in the budget of every household. “While the people are being asked to tighten their belts through austerity measures, the Modi government continues to protect corporate profits and shift the entire burden of its failures onto the people,” he said.
According to him, the crisis was the result of Prime Minister Modi’s disastrous foreign policy and his complete surrender of India’s strategic autonomy to the United States and Donald Trump. “India was pressured to curb energy imports from Russia and Iran, weakening our energy security and exposing the country to global shocks and manipulation. Today, the nation is paying the price for a foreign policy driven not by national interests but by political servility,” Raja added.
Published – 15 May 2026 21:40 IST
