Defending the government, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely has posted on fb, the oil prices and the hypocrisy of the opposition the challenges thrown up by the increase in the international price of crude oil cannot be resolved by either the tweets or television bytes of some opposition leaders. The problem is serious. The oil producing nations have capped their production, thus creating a demand-supply mismatch. The political crisis in Venezuela and Libya has adversely impacted the production in those countries. The US sanctions on Iran have increased the uncertainty towards Iran’s supplies to its buyers. The commercial supply of shale gas, which was intended to balance the high crude oil cost, is running behind schedule.