‘Arhar Modi’ rant sets FM’s pulse running : The Tribune India

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‘Arhar Modi’ rant sets FM’s pulse running

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi repeatedly mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his attack on the government, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley targeted the previous UPA regime for "leaving the economy in a mess".

‘Arhar Modi’ rant sets FM’s pulse running

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha on Thursday. — PTI



Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 28

The food inflation debate in the Lok Sabha witnessed intense political bickering today with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi repeatedly mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his attack on the government, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley targeting the previous UPA regime for "leaving the economy in a mess".

“Across villages, children are now chanting Arhar Modi,” Rahul said, taking swipes at PM’s Lok Sabha poll slogan of “Ghar Ghar Modi”.

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The Gandhi scion’s charge was that the PM was indulging in a dialogue delivery on the subject of price reduction but was doing nothing on ground. Through a 15-minute speech dotted with jabs, Rahul questioned PM’s record on inflation listing the soaring prices of lentils, tomatoes and potatoes.

“You had on February 16, 2014 said in Himachal that you will control prices if voted to power. You used hyperboles to convince people of your ability to arrest inflation. What dialogues you had delivered! Now what,” Rahul asked, leading the Congress charge.

As the Amethi MP mocked PM’s flagship schemes from Swachh Bharat to Digital India, blaming rising lentil prices on corruption by middlemen, Finance Minister Jaitley hit back, saying political grandstanding can’t belie real inflation data.

“The fact is inflation was double digit during the last two years of Congress-led UPA Government. We controlled it despite deficient rains. We are confident it will further fall as the monsoon strengthens,” the FM said, intervening in the debate which saw Rahul throwing jabs at BJP’s Poonam Mahajan, telling her she knew nothing of food prices as she wasn't visiting the markets.

Jaitley, however, stuck to data to prove his point. Citing food and wholesale price inflation during the initial years of NDA Government as lower than those in the terminal years of UPA, the FM cautioned Rahul for his argument that lentil prices must decrease with increase in MSP. "This is the first time I am hearing this logic of economy. Prices are determined by demand and supply and lentil prices rose due to this mismatch. We annually consume 23 million tonnes of lentils and produced only 17 million tonnes," FM said, telling the House that the Government had taken steps to prevent future crisis in lentil pricing.

This year's lentil production is expected to be 20 MT due to enhanced cultivation, the FM said, sharing details of the pacts India had signed with Myanmar, Mozambique and Tanzania to import pulses if needed. The Government has also decided to maintain a buffer stock of 20 lakh tonnes.

On Rahul's conclusion that the Government was insensitive as it had not shared the benefits from global crude oil price reduction with them, Jaitley told the Gandhi scion, his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi listening, "Back of envelope calculations are not sound economics. The UPA had left the economy in such mess that we had to spend money to revive it. So we did three things with reduced crude oil prices - made up for losses of public oil companies, passed on some benefits to consumers and used the rest of the money for capital investments in infrastructure."

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