Congress leader Rahul Gandhi once again hit out at the Narendra Modi led government over inflation, rise in fuel prices, farm laws and crony capitalism.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Gandhi said, “In the last 7 years, we have seen a new economic paradigm. Demonetisation on one side, and monetisation on the other side.”
Gandhi was referring to the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) and the 2016 demonetisation of currency notes.
On August 23, the government unveiled the ₹6 trillion NMP and plans to raise ₹88,000 crore this year by leasing infrastructure assets of the central government ministries and state-run companies under NMP. These funds will be used to build new infrastructure assets to expand economic growth. Modi had announced the demonetisation in November 2016.
Rahul Gandhi continuously slammed at the centre saying the demonetisation is only for the famers, labourers, small and medium businesses, MSMEs, salaried class, government employees and honest industrialists. “Who is being monetised? 4-5 friends of Modi ji – economic transfer is being done,” he said.
He went on questioning, “The Centre earned Rs 23 lakh crore through GDP, not the Gross Domestic Product but gas-diesel-petrol. Where did this Rs 23 lakh crore go?”
“When UPA left in 2014, the price of LPG cylinder was Rs 410 per cylinder. At present it costs Rs 885 per cylinder, which is an increase of 116%. In 2015, Petrol was Rs 71.5/litre, today it’s Rs 101/litre, an increase of 42%. Diesel was priced at Rs 57 per litre in 2014, but today it’s Rs 88 per litre today,” the former Congress chief pointed out.
Gandhi accused the BJP-led government of only favouring a few “friends” while ignoring the nation. He said a “transfer of wealth was taking place from the poor, from the weak to the friends” of the PM. The government needs to be held accountable and must answer for this transfer of wealth, he added
The Wayanad MP said there is anger among the people and also a feeling that the Centre is silencing dissent. “We are showing restraint because we are in the midst of a pandemic,” he said adding, in Parliament, they do not let us speak.