Modi’s appeal to middle-class India to forego sops on cooking gas addresses a sense of civic duty. It is aimed at helping poor women get rid of polluting stoves. But it is also divisive.During his Mumbai speech Prime Minister Modi reiterated his passionate appeal to citizens. He asked 1 crore Indians to voluntarily give up the subsidy they currently enjoy on their cooking gas cylinders. The government launched project PAHAL last week asking people to opt out of the subsidy scheme. There are about 14.5 crore registered users of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders. Of these the government and the PM hope that at least 1 crore will opt out. So far only 3 lakh have done so, which is 3 per cent of the target.The subsidy on LPG is Rs 40 per kilo or Rs 568 per cylinder weighing 14.2 kilos. This is the amount “not recovered” from the customer. It has to be paid by someone. That “someone” is actually three different companies (ONGC, GAIL and OIL) and the government of India. So indirectly the subsidy burden is borne by shareholders of those companies and the taxpayers of India. The total annual LPG burden is Rs 40,000 crore, more or less, depending on how much gas is burnt. The earlier UPA government tried to trim the subsidy, by capping it at 12 cylinders per family, then down to nine and back to 12 again. The NDA government continued with this largesse, although for next fiscal year the amount budgeted is merely Rs 22,000 crore.Rather than fix the number of cylinders, why not fix the total amount of money? Thus each family (or LPG subscriber) will get, say, a fixed amount of Rs 4,000 per year. This can be implemented if money can be deposited directly into their bank account. The LPG cylinder can then be sold at market price. You would end up paying “full price” and receive a cash refund into your bank account as subsidy. For this you need to sign up.The PM is asking that you don’t sign up for the refund. Hence just pay full price at the shop, and take it on the chin. Voluntarily sacrifice an extra Rs 4,000 annually. If 1 crore of you subscribers do it, that will reduce the subsidy burden by Rs 4,000 crore, not a mean sum.In an emotional moment, the PM said he is not asking this to enrich the government’s treasury. But rather to use this amount to provide subsidised gas cylinders to those unfortunate women still stuck with highly polluting, and disease causing wooden chulhas.There have been charismatic leaders in history who asked for sacrifices. Subhash Chandra Bose asked for blood in exchange for freedom. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked that citizens give up one meal a week so that the nation could tackle food shortage, especially during wartime and inflation. President John Kennedy had famously said to Americans, “Ask not what the country can do for you... ask what you can do for the country.”PM Modi’s exhortation on LPG might not be in the same category, but he is appealing to a basic sense of national civic duty and also compassion for the poor. The LPG subsidy was meant to help people below the poverty line, to make cooking fuel affordable. Surely, just because the government kept the subsidy untargeted, it does not mean that the higher earning middle class should take advantage?But the harried middle class protests, and is weary of the colossal waste of public money that they see all around. What to speak of the accumulation of black money through corruption. They say that if the government is keen to save money and cut costs, it should begin with cutting the food and fertiliser subsidy or leakage in MNREGA. Writers like P Sainath point out large tax giveaways to the wealthy corporate sector, much greater than LPG subsidy to middle class.Why can’t the government be less generous to corporations? This debate is unending. You do what you think is right. Do you deserve this subsidy? You decide!