New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday hit back at the opposition which accused the government of being insensitive to the problems faced by the people owing to high prices of essential commodities.
Mukherjee shot back when some members of the Lok Sabha, including leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj, said the government was callous and lacked ‘sensitivity’.
‘Dont ridicule my sensitivity. I am a village boy. I studied up to class 10 with a kerosene lamp. I used to commute to my school by walking 10 km everyday. So I know the life of a villager,’ Mukherjee said.
The opposition parties led by the BJP have been trying to put the government on the mat over high food and essential commodity prices and disrupted proceedings of the lower house last week.
‘We were accused that government is not sensitive. If the government was not sensitive, it would not have provided the rights by legal enactment, whether its the jobs for the rural people, entitlement to the right to education,’ said Mukherjee.
‘These are the indications of the sensitivity of the government. Sensitivity should not be a temporary thing.’
The finance minister said the opposition when in power, had initiated a much steeper hike in fuel and that the present day government had done its best to keep fuel prices under check but could not hold off a hike forever as the oil marketing companies were incurring huge losses.
