Rahul Gandhi’s Twin Attack, Slams Government For Raising Fuel Prices, Exposes Gujarat Model

File Picture

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has slammed  the government in twin attack. First,  over the increase in petrol and diesel prices, saying the middle class and the poor pay for the “gifts crony capitalists get”. And second over the COVID-19 crisis where he exposed the Gujarat model due to high mortality rate.

Rahul in his tweet  also used a graph to show that prices of petrol and diesel were low in May 2014 under the UPA despite high crude cost globally, but the NDA government raised the excise duty on petrol by 258.47 per cent and on diesel by 819.94 per cent as on June 15, 2020.

The statement came on a day oil companies raised petrol and diesel prices by 48 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise a litre. This is the ninth daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs.

“Middle class and the poor pay for the gifts the crony capitalists get,” Gandhi said on Twitter.

He also used a hashtag in Hindi that translates to “Shame on a government that loots”.

Gandhi also said on May 16, 2014, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, the international crude oil price was $107.09 per barrel, while it is $40.66 on June 15, 2020, when the NDA is in government.

Despite the crude costing $66.43 less per barrel, petrol and diesel prices now are higher than what they were in 2014, he said.

The Congress has been demanding that petrol and diesel prices be brought under the The opposition party has also demanded a rollback of excise duty hikes on petrol, diesel to bring down their prices.

The Congress has said the government is earning out of the pockets of the poor by imposing high taxes on petrol and diesel, depriving the common man the benefit of lower crude oil prices.

Meanwhile in another tweet stepping up his attack on the Modi government, Rahul Gandhi, said the “Gujarat Model” has been exposed with the state recording the highest rate of coronavirus deaths in the country, almost double the national average.

Rahul in his posts had lashed out the inept handling of the COVID-19 crisis by the government and even quoted Einstein to say: “The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance”.

“Covid19 mortality rate: Gujarat: 6.25% Maharashtra: 3.73% Rajasthan: 2.32% Punjab: 2.17% Puducherry: 1.98% Jharkhand: 0.5% Chhattisgarh: 0.35% Gujarat Model exposed,” posted Rahul, sharing a BBC report analyzing the high rate of deaths in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.