Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Wednesday slammed the Narendra Modi government over the rising prices of cooking gas, petrol and diesel, and took a ‘GDP’ dig at the ruling establishment. Addressing a news conference, the former Congress president said GDP under the new regime means ‘Gas-Diesel-Petrol’.
“Modi ji keeps saying that GDP is rising, Finance Minister says that GDP is showing an upward projection. I then understood what they mean by GDP. It means ‘Gas-Diesel-Petrol’. They have this confusion,” Gandhi said.
The Lok Sabha MP also took a dig at the Union government over the recently-announced National Monetisation Pipeline.
Gandhi said it was PM Modi’s 4-5 friends who are monetised, while the country’s farmers, labourers, small businesses, MSMEs, salaried class etc were being demonetised.
“First Modi ji said that he is undertaking demonetisation and Finance Minister says that she is undertaking monetisation. The people are asking, what is undergoing monetisation and what is being subjected to demonetisation?” Gandhi asked.
“Farmers, labourers, small and medium businesses, MSMEs, salaried class, government employees and honest industrialists are being demonetised. Who is being monetised? 4-5 friends of Narendra Modi ji – economic transfer is being done,” he added, accusing the prime minister of seeking to benefit some big industrialists who are allegedly close to the government.
The Congress leader, however, did not name anybody.
Referring to the rising prices of petroleum products, Gandhi said cooking gas (LPG) used to cost Rs 410 per cylinder in 2014 when the previous UPA government was in power. “Now it is Rs 885,” he said, comparing the prices of LPG between the two regimes.
“Petrol was at Rs 71.5 per litre in 2014 when the UPA was in power, now it’s Rs 101; diesel has risen from Rs 57 to Rs 88,” he added.
He pointed out that the prices of these petroleum products have been on the rise in India while international prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas have been down since 2014.
“The government has earned Rs 23 lakh crore from increasing prices of gas, diesel and petrol in the last seven years,” Gandhi claimed. “Where did these Rs 23 lakh crores go?” he asked.
