The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Monday, 10 September, tweeted two separate infographics – on petrol and diesel retail selling prices in Delhi – titled ‘Truth of Hike in Petroleum Prices’ to show the rate of fuel price hike over the years.
However, BJP’s graphs depict a fall in petrol and diesel prices instead of an increase.
In the graph for petrol, the rate at which petrol prices have surged has increased by 13 percent between 2014 and 2018, which is a drop in the rate when compared to the jump between 2009 to 2014 at 75.8 percent.
However, instead of clearly depicting the drop in ‘rate’, the graph shows a drop in absolute ‘prices’, which is obviously wrong – the bar showing the price being Rs 80.73 is ACTUALLY lower than the one which lists Rs 40.62 as the price for petrol.
Similarly, in the graph on diesel prices, the BJP has again indicated a decrease in the hike percentage from 2014 to 2018 by showing a drop in the price bar – when in reality, diesel prices have risen to Rs 72.83 from Rs 56.71.
In an hour’s time, the Congress “fixed” the BJP's faulty graph, with a rectified bar graph showing the actual fuel price hike.
Further, the Congress' graph also makes a nuanced comparison by including the Indian Basket Crude Oil prices for the respective years.
Here, it is clear that throughout the UPA regime, the oil prices have risen in tandem with the international crude oil prices. However, the oil price hike from 2014 to 2018 has seen an increase of 13%, despite a 34% fall in international crude oil price.
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