Modi’s ‘mangalsutra’ remarks have come true, says Kharge

Amid rise in women mortgaging their gold, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said his remarks ‘stealing of mangalsutras’ made during the Lok Sabha poll had come true.

Citing media reports, Kharge claimed that between 2019 and 2024, four crore women mortgaged their gold and took a loan of Rs 4.7 lakh crore.

In 2024, 38 per cent of the total loan was taken by mortgaging gold, he said.

In February 2025, the RBI data showed that gold loan increased by a whopping 71.3 per cent in a year, the Congress chief said.

“Narendra Modi ji, you had talked about ‘stealing of mangalsutras’. That has now come true. In your rule, women have been forced to mortgage their gold ornaments. First you made women’s ‘stri-dhan’ disappear by implementing demonetization. Now, due to inflation and falling household savings, they are forced to mortgage their jewellery,” Kharge said in a post on X.

During the Lok Sabha poll campaign last year, Modi had alleged that the Congress would take away ‘mangalsutras’ and redistribute the wealth of the people.

Kharge alleged that due to Modi government’s poor handling of the economy, middle class families, who bought two-wheelers, were unable to repay their loans.

In the wake of rising loan defaults, two-wheeler financiers are cutting down on lending for the first time since 2019, he said.