Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday (March 21, 2026) pushed the cooking gas scarcity roiling the national economy into Kerala’s electoral debate by blaming successive Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at the Centre for the “unprecedented energy crisis”.
In a statement in Thiruvananthapuram, Mr Vijayan said that the Congress in 2006, and later the BJP, “capitulated to American imperialism’ by repeatedly rejecting the proposed India-Iran gas pipeline.
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Mr Vijayan termed the decision “a historical mistake” that has cost the country dear. He said the Congress government at the Centre ousted and later politically sidelined the then Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, for strongly backing the pipeline, which would have guaranteed India’s energy security.
Mr Vijayan said corporate interests had also played a role in India’s “shortsighted” decision to shelve the pipeline project. He said the Congress replaced Mr Iyer with Murli Deora, known for his allegedly pro-corporate approach to India’s energy policy, to help the private sector profit. “Instead of promulgating a pro-people energy security policy, the Congress adopted a corporate-centric petroleum policy which ultimately benefited the private sector at the cost of India’s long-term energy reliability”, he said.
