It was almost certain that the Opposition parties would protest against the petrol and diesel price hikes in the Parliament. In response to a notice under Rule 267 — which allows suspension of business of the day to discuss a particular issue — by some Opposition leaders, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu disallowed the exercise. In Lok Sabha also, Opposition parties demanded the rollback of fuel price hikes and staged a walkout. Resistance from Opposition parties led to heavy disruption in the proceedings of the Parliament — with the Upper House functioning for just 14 minutes in the entire day. Fuel price hike is undeniably a people's concern and requires discussion in the Parliament but the Opposition's outright demand to rollback price hikes appears absolutely futile at this juncture. Given the global flux arising out of the Russia-Ukraine war, price hikes are inevitable. The unwarranted rigidity of Opposition parties — rendering the critically important Parliament hours unproductive — is an injustice to the people of India, whose money drives the functioning of the Parliament. The Central government is to be equally blamed for the situation we are into. Public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) have raised the retail petrol and diesel prices by 80 paise for two straight days this week, which is still below proportions when compared to the phenomenal rise in international crude oil prices over the past five months. OMCs held themselves back for a period of over four and a half months from increasing the fuel prices — even though normally prices are revised on a daily basis. The hiatus is widely attributed — and rightly so — to the recently concluded assembly elections in five states. Unlike Europe, India's fuel import from Russia is abysmally low. So, supply constraint has been a relatively lesser concern for the country vis-à-vis European countries. But still, given its heavy dependence on imports for fuel requirements, the rising price of international crude oil has been concerning for India. Nothing apart from elections could fully explain the insulation of fuel prices in the months leading up to the assembly elections. As the price of international Brent crude oil has soared from around USD 80 a barrel to USD 119 per barrel since November last year, potential price rise of petrol and diesel in India has culminated to around, as the experts put it, Rs 10 per liter. OMCs are expected to narrow this gap by subsequent price hikes over the coming weeks in a graded manner. There are other factors as well that make fuel price hike an imperative at this juncture. Indian OMCs raised the bulk diesel price by Rs 25 a liter, and jet fuel prices by 18 per cent, in the past week. Bulk price of HSD is the price at which bulk buyers such as industries and sectors buy diesel from the OMCs directly. It was almost certain that bulk price rise will be followed by subsequent retail price hikes. If it were not so, the bulk buyers would resort to retail points (petrol pumps) for their fuel requirements, as the fuel would be relatively cheaper there. This would translate into a direct loss for the OMCs. Notably, owing to their holding up of fuel prices during the months leading up to assembly elections, OMCs are already running into losses. The companies are currently earning negative margins of Rs 12/liter and Rs 9.5/liter on sale of diesel and petrol respectively. Unless and until the Central government goes for extensive excise duty cut and state governments curtail their VATs, oil price hikes will remain inevitable under the present circumstances. Instabilities arising out of Russia-Ukraine conflict — even if the war ends — will take some time to wither away. It goes without saying that a rise in fuel prices from hereon will negatively impact the current retail inflation scenario — which has already been in news for staying over the six per cent tolerance band set by the Reserve Bank of India for two straight months. Price hikes in retail fuel, particularly diesel, has a direct bearing on the retail inflation as it adds to the logistical cost of transportation of goods. Much will depend upon the limit to which the international crude oil prices can be contained during the ensuing fiscal. CRISIL has reported that if Brent crude prices don't come down to the desired band of USD 85-90 over FY23, it will be a difficult task to contain fuel inflation — and thus retail inflation of other commodities. Higher retail inflation at this point, in turn, will curtail public consumption on account of lowered demand — further affecting India's growth prospects. In these tumultuous circumstances, the Central government should take the lead in lowering excise duty on petrol and diesel to ease off the burden from the common person's shoulders. Opposition parties also have a great role to play in initiating constructive and meaningful debate around the issue to drive the government to a feasible bargain. Politicizing the issue and pushing forward bizarre demands of absolute rollback of fuel prices may not yield any meaningful results. Common man's suffering shouldn't be mocked through futile fights.