The Narendra Modi government is running bulldozer on people’s Budget with ₹50 hike in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders, the Congress said on Wednesday even as the party’s fomer chief accused the government of “managing headlines and mismanaging the economy”.
Separately, the All India Mahila Congress, in a tweet, asked if this was the cost for toppling the Maharashtra government.
“Headlines Managed. Economy Mismanaged,” tweeted Mr. Gandhi with a picture in tabular form that distinguished between BJP’s claims and the reality.
In the text, the former Congress chief noted that the BJP earlier used to propagate [prachar] that the currency of a country goes down if it has a corrupt government. But now, he said, “Indian Rupee slips to ₹79.36 hitting record low” which is an “attack” [prahar] on the common man.
Similarly, the claim is that inflation made headlines only before 2014 as it doesn’t make news. But Mr. Gandhi said the reality is an attack on the people in the form of a hike of ₹50 and now an LPG cylinders costs ₹1,053.
On employment front, Mr. Gandhi noted that the claim was to create 2 crore jobs every year but India lost 1.3 crore jobs in June.
In a tweet in Hindi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the BJP spoke of welfare of the poor at its national executive meeting while imposing five percent “Gabbar Singh Tax (GST)“ on flour, cereals, curd and paneer, and then broke the back of the poor and middle class by increasing the price of domestic cooking gas by ₹50.
Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Despite crude in international prices coming down in international market, the government is going on increasing domestic gas prices...The government is running bulldozer on people’s Budget.”
At a press conference at the Congress headquarters, party spokesperson Ragini Nayak said that under the Modi government, it is a surprise “if the prices of petrol and diesel do not increase and people’s back not broken due to inflation”.
Ms. Nayak said though the government makes big claims about implementation of the Ujjwala scheme or providing free gas connection to poor household, data from the three oil marketing companies show that 3.59 crore customers could not afford a refill in 2021-22.
“The biggest achievement of Prime Minister Modi is that he has been successful in deceiving the country on every front. When will the Prime Minister, who once talked about showing red eyes to China, show red eyes to inflation. The country is waiting for it,” Ms. Nayak said.
