Huge LPG shortage in country, Modi govt's 'feeble' foreign policy to blame: Kejriwal

New Delhi, March 11
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that the country is going through troubling times due to acute LPG shortage, which is only going to worsen with the deepening West Asia crisis, and pinned the blame on the Narendra Modi government’s "feeble and pliable" foreign policy.

Addressing a press conference in the capital, Kejriwal claimed that the nation’s LPG production has reduced by about 50 per cent, and its fallout is visible primarily in the commercial sector as multiple restaurants are pulling their shutters down.

Holding the government responsible for the LPG crisis, he said that had the Modi government sustained India’s long-stated policy of non-alignment and not gravitated towards the US and Israel in this war in West Asia, this could have been avoided. He highlighted that despite the major blockade, the oil ships of Iran’s friendly nations are still passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

"60 per cent of the country’s LPG reserves are imported from abroad, out of this 90 per cent comes through the Strait of Hormuz that remains in control of Iranian forces," he claimed.

Kejriwal further said that restaurants and hotel industry is mainly bearing the brunt and thousands of them are on the brink of closure, leaving thousands of jobs at stake.

The former Delhi CM also accused the government of bowing down to American pressure, abandoning India’s own interests and not showing the country’s resolve in its foreign policy.

He claimed that many ordinary officials of the Donald Trump administration are making objectionable and abominable utterances against the Indian government and Prime Minister without any restraint, and said the country of 140 crores was feeling embarrassed about it.

Claiming that the Modi government has been following the Trump administration’s diktats, he said that India reduced duty on cotton and stopped buying Russian oil at the behest of the US President, and this has severely impacted the country, monetarily as well as in terms of job losses.

He said that the "weak" Prime Minister is being blackmailed by the Trump administration, and the nation of 140 crore Indians is furious over this "capitulation".

"India must not be made to bow before the US. India’s foreign policy should be centred around its people and not be influenced by foreign pressures," he demanded.