‘GDP Means Gas-Diesel-Petrol’

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the Centre today on the uninterrupted hike in petro prices, citing data for petrol, diesel and cooking gas. Rahul said that the government has earned more than Rs 23 lakhs over the last 7 years due to the spike in diesel, petrol and cooking gas prices.

He claimed the funds and the Goods and Services tax are benefiting a handful of crony capitalists. The increase in GDP, he equated with the rise of “gas, diesel and petrol prices” while addressing a news conference.

He further stated that the price of LPG was Rs 410 a cylinder when the UPA left the office. And today it is Rs 885 which is a 116 per cent rise, he quoted. The price of petrol has increased by 42 per cent and diesel has increased by over 55 per cent since 2014.

He gave his piece of mind to a section of people who argued that these are dependent on the international market. Rahul said that the international prices for all these have reduced since 2014, but it has increased in India. He recalled how back in 2014, despite high petrol prices in the international market, India had low.

Rahul further slammed the centre for allegedly going back to the place where it was in 1990, facing an ‘’economic catastrophe’’, citing his views on how the economic strategy between 1991-2012 not working anymore. He said the Congress government had changed the vision for India back then, but the condition is not the same now.

The Lok Sabha MP further took a dig at the Union government over the latest National Monetisation Pipeline. Rahul said it was Modi’s 4-5 friends who are monetised, while the country’s farmers, labourers, small businesses, MSMEs, salaried class etc were being demonetised. “Modi first 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?” Rahul asked.