Hardeep Puri gives CNN journalist a ‘royal snub’ when asked about Russian oil

New Delhi, Nov 1: Gone are the days when India could be cornered or trapped by the West. The new emerging India doesn't shy away from replying back both in action and in words. The latest example of this candor is when India's Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri was questioned by a CNN journalist on whether India had "qualms" over purchasing oil from Russia.

In the interview, CNN journalist Becky Anderson questioned whether India was benefiting from discounted oil imports from Russia while having no qualms about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This did not go well with Puri. "Let me first try and correct your perspective, we ended the financial year 2022, the purchases of Russian oil were not 2 per cent, it was 0.2 per cent. Moreover, we still buy a quarter of what Europe buys in one afternoon. So, let's be very clear about what the perspective is," ANI quoted him as stating in the interview.

He also pointed out that "there is no moral conflict...if somebody wants to take an ideological position...We don't buy from X or Y, we buy whatever is available. I don't do the buying, it's the oil companies who do the buying."

On asking India's back-up plans if the West takes tough stand on buying oil from Russia, the minister said, "We have many backup plans, I don't look at the way you are looking at it. We have healthy discussions going on with the US and Europe. We don't feel any pressure, Modi's government doesn't feel the pressure. We are the fifth largest economy in the world, we are the one country, which is making the transition. When you have an increase in the oil prices, they have consequences - one of it is - there will be inflation and recession, another is we will make the transition in green energy."

Puri also clarified that Russia was not the the largest supplier of oil to India. "Russia is not the largest supplier of oil to India, Russia supplied only 0.2 per cent. Now, it is one of the top four or five suppliers and in fact, the largest supplier last month was Iraq. So, there is no misunderstanding anywhere," he pointed out.

The minister stated that India owes a moral duty towards its people. "We owe our moral duty to consumers, we have a 1.3 billion population and we have to ensure that they are supplied with energy, whether petrol or diesel. We were the only country in the world, which at the time when we were feeding 800 million people free meals a day which we are still doing. The Government reduced its revenue in order to make sure that the prices of petrol ban didn't go up."

Hardeep Singh Puri had further said that India was not under pressure on limiting energy purchases from Russia.

On asking whether India has become a backdoor into Europe for Russian oil as it being imported into India before being exported to Europe, Puri said that it was done by some private sector companies, not by OMC's. "Who buys Russian oil, and where it is refined, we have nothing to do with that. The government doesn't do the buying. The oil trade is conducted by economic entities," he added.