Shri K.D. Malaviya has walked right into an oily mess in Gujarat. This time it is not foreign oil companies that he has rubbed on the wrong side, but full-blooded native patriotism. The Oil Minister’s intriguing statement in the Lok Sabha recently that the laying of pipelines from Gujarat to Bombay was in the national interest seems to have created more problems than it has solved. Insofar as confusion is the prevailing mood of the moment, Shri Malaviya has only himself to blame. For, the whole trouble started with his allusion to this unexplained national interest. Certainly there seems to be no economic interest involved in the idea of carrying Gujarat’s crude oil all the way to Bombay for refining. The pipeline which Shri Malaviya is so anxious to lay will cost more than ten crores of rupees, a sizable sum of money. At the same time he has categorically committed the centre to the construction of a refinery in Gujarat. Indeed, a pilot refinery with a capacity of 20 million tons is under construction at Cambay. The oil actually available in this area is roughly estimated to be between 20 and 40 million tons. So, when the modest Cambay refinery is completed, the proposed pipeline will have no crude to carry Bombay. Nor will there be any necessity for refined oil to be transported to Bombay via the pipeline, for Bombay is already a major starting point for oil distribution. This raises the basic question: what exactly is the pipeline for? If it is only to provide a temporary convenience until the Gujarat refinery goes on stream, ten crores of rupees seems too large an amount to be expended on it. And if it is to be a permanent utility, Shri Malaviya should do more than merely refer to some unknown national interest. The extent of emotion that has welled up in Gujarat over the issue should not be lightly taken; with even the Congress agitating about it, the matter has become an all-party struggle. In the circumstances Shri Malaviya must make a frank and uninhibited statement on his intentions and plans. If he has a sound case for what he intends doing, he will certainly get the support he needs. But the explanation must come first.
16th December 1960.
