The Hindu Business Line : Energy security isn't same as energetic security

GANDHIJI said, "If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time." That's what Mani seems to be doing, endlessly getting in and out of cars and planes, patiently going up and down meetings and discussions, and generally talking right and left about petrol and diesel price hikes. However, people who have been enduring the Government's indecision aren't patient enough not to ask questions.

Who has to decide?

It's the boss. It is for the PM to decide what to do, said Mani before hopping onto a flight that would give him a 10-day reprieve from the problem. But Manny says, "Go, ask the madam," who is anyway busy with too many visitors ever since she became the president for a second term.

Is the Left right in opposing the hike?

That's exactly what our friendly sardar asked the Left during the two rounds of negotiations he held with them. He put forth `convincing arguments' to the Left leaders on the need for raising the prices, but they didn't wince. An animation movie was also screened, it is rumoured, on how the navaratna oil companies might otherwise become unprofitable in the long run. But somebody mumbled a John Maynard Keynes quote: "In the long run, we're all dead."

I suspect they're keeping it a secret!

Normal practice is to announce the price increases at the stroke of midnight by when you are already asleep, so the morrow in any case is a different day. But Mani has been shouting from rooftops, "When we reach a decision, we will inform you. There is no suspense and nothing is being done in secrecy."

But when?

The Petroleum Minister is so tired of this poser that he turned around when a reporter asked him `when' and looked at the journo in the eye only to say, "I refuse to give any timeframe for the proposed hike in oil prices." Do you want to ask who or where?

Energy security is the same as energetic security?

Energy security refers to "a variety of issues from the economic cost of oil supply disruptions to the cost of military expenditures to secure international trade," explains www.weathervane.rff.org. The phrase keeps energetically popping up at the PMO whenever he wants to highlight how a delay in price hikes can affect the country's energy security and how the dependence on imported oil could place a tremendous pressure on the economy.

What about the protests?

They're talking of mobilising a countrywide movement if the Centre decides to increase the price of petroleum products. However, such a large-scale movement would need a lot of fuel too, which may kindly be provided at a concessional rate, I'd suggest.

Should I stop using my bike?

Even if I were to say yes, it would be tough for you to stop. "It is not necessary to advertise food to hungry people, fuel to cold people, or houses to the homeless," said John Kenneth Galbraith. That is, demand is inelastic, in the lingo of economics. If you decide to stop using your bike, "Gain may be temporary and uncertain," as Benjamin Franklin comments. For, "Ever while you live, expense is constant and certain."

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in

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Energy security isn't same as energetic security