NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday shamed the Government for claiming that the inflation has been tamed while the prices of all essential items in the kitchen have shot up beyond imagination and no action taken by the government, not even reducing the transportation cost.
Its spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said she was referring to the essential vegetables like tomatoes to green chillies to ginger to garlic. She said the government doesn’t care to bring any relief. She said the party had to take police protection to prevent looting of the basket of the items she was bringing for a press conference.
“The reality is that unemployment in this country is at a 2-year peak. Has the government responded to it? They continue to look away. Tomatoes are being sold for Rs.140 to Rs.150 a kg, green chilies for Rs.400 a kg, ginger for Rs.400 a kg, and garlic equally high. The reality is that it is not just vegetables and no, it is not a seasonal factor. The transport cost is huge… if only the government acts on it, there will be relief..”
Shrinate said the The reality is prices of spices like Cumin… Jeera has gone up to Rs. 800 a Kg. It has seen a jump of nearly Rs.200 in a few months. Pulses as common as Toor and Arhar dal are costing you anything between Rs. 160 to Rs. 170, branded pulses even more. Prices of rice have gone up, prices of wheat have gone up… what about the common man? What about the middle class? What about the poor reeling under poverty? What is the government planning to do about all of that and more?
She also shared a comparative chart of where the prices were in the UPA before 2014 and where they are today and that too at a time when the purchasing power parity for the common Indians is down. “Average Indian is poorer than how they were between 2013 to 2023. The reality also is that there are certain items where the weightage has gone down but the prices have gone up, and I will just very briefly display some of this to you.”
She showed biscuits, the Parle-G bicuits, the most common biscuit anywhere in the country and having been in the world of finance and economy, I can also tell you this is a big barometer of how economic progress is and if you remember, the consumption of Parle-G had gone down. This Parle-G biscuit used to cost you Rs. 5 a packet but that packet weighed 80 grams, today this packet weighs 50 grams. I have tea leaves here with me. 250 grams of these tea leaves used to cost us Rs.50, now 200 grams cost us Rs.70.
Then she turns to Namkeen. “I have this Namkeen here with me. In Rs.10, one could buy a packet that weighed 65 grams… it now is 32 grams. I have got Matar here with me. A Rs.10 packet would get you 65 grams of Matar, today it gets you 42 grams of Matar. I have got peanuts here with me. It used to cost Rs.10 for 55 grams, now you get only 34 grams in Rs. 10. I have got a chocolate here with me, you know everybody likes to have a chocolate once in a while. It used to cost me Rs.5, it now costs all of us Rs.10… prices have not gone up by 50 paise or a rupee they have doubled from Rs. 5 to Rs.10. I have got coffee here with me. It used to be 7 gram sachet that used to cost as Rs.10… that 7 gram sachet has now been reduced to 5 and a half gram, one-and-a-half-gram sachet rests with PM Modi.”
“And here is sauce… 950 grams of this sauce used to cost me about Rs. 100, it now costs 850 grams for Rs. 100. So, the reality is that the government is completely apathetic… they don’t really care. It doesn’t matter to them what common man or woman is facing. And is it a fact that the government can’t do anything? Is it all seasonal? Absolutely not! I mean look at the Congress government, look at our government in Rajasthan… our government in Rajasthan is committed to bringing relief. We are giving cylinders for Rs. 500.”
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