India’s Ethanol Crisis: Gadkari Must Choose Between Excuses and Execution
Recently, petrol pump owners across humid and coastal parts of India — from Tamil Nadu to South Gujarat — raised an unusual but telling demand: they want oil companies to supply non-ethanol blended petrol during the monsoon months. Their reason is simple and technical. Ethanol, being hygroscopic, absorbs moisture from the air, and in heavy rains it often leads to water contamination and phase separation inside storage tanks. The result is stalling engines, corroded components, and furious customers blaming pump dealers who themselves have no control over the fuel quality.
Instead of treating these complaints as a red flag and revisiting the rollout strategy, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has repeatedly waved away such concerns by blaming the so-called “oil lobby” — an invisible bogeyman supposedly out to derail his ethanol mission. But the truth is harder and far less flattering: India’s ethanol crisis is not the handiwork of lobbyists; it is the direct outcome of poor planning, unprepared infrastructure, and rushed execution.
The government’s promise was grand. By blending ethanol into petrol, India would reduce its reliance on oil imports, cut emissions, and pump crores into the rural economy by buying surplus sugarcane from farmers. On paper, this looked like a textbook win-win. By 2025, we were told, the nation would march proudly into an E20 era. Yet the practice has been far from the promise. Consumers are stuck with engines choking on adulterated fuel, pump dealers are pleading for relief, and the much-hyped transition is becoming a running joke. Execution gaps, not lobbyists, are the true villains of this story.
Still, Gadkari insists on pointing fingers at phantom enemies. According to him, a shadowy “oil cartel” is plotting against India’s green fuel transition. Let’s be clear: the oil lobby did not flood storage tanks in Tamil Nadu with monsoon water. The oil lobby did not corrode rubber seals in scooters tuned for E10 fuel. Physics did. Poor infrastructure did. And administrative overconfidence did. Creating imaginary villains might play well in speeches, but it does nothing to keep water out of petrol tanks.
The hard truths are staring us in the face. Most petrol stations are still equipped with underground tanks designed for conventional petrol, not ethanol blends. Many lack proper sealing or humidity control. Vehicles on the road today — especially the millions of two-wheelers — are not truly E20-ready, despite the government’s grand claims. Seasonal planning was nonexistent; how else can one explain a rollout that ignored India’s annual monsoon cycle? Pump owners are left stranded, blamed by customers for problems caused higher up the chain, while manufacturers quietly duck responsibility for fuel system failures.
Leadership, however, is not about dodging accountability. If Gadkari wants his ethanol mission to survive, he must admit what’s broken and fix it. That means considering seasonal exemptions in high-humidity states, funding infrastructure upgrades at fuel stations, mandating clear consumer disclosures at pumps, and creating a compensation mechanism for engine damage linked to fuel quality. That is how you lead — not by spinning conspiracy theories about enemies in the shadows.
Because the stakes are far higher than Gadkari’s political ego. If India continues down this road of denial, consumers will turn against ethanol, farmers will lose a potential income stream, and the program itself will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. What was supposed to be India’s big green showcase will be remembered as just another “headline reform” botched by poor execution.
In the end, Gadkari must choose. He can keep hiding behind excuses, crying wolf about imaginary oil cartels. Or he can own up to the ethanol mess, take corrective measures, and show India that execution matters as much as vision. One truth remains constant: ethanol won’t drown because of lobbyists. It will drown because of negligence — unless Gadkari learns to swim in the waters of accountability.
