Congress Cites 'Kya Hua Tera Vada' to Target Government Over Food Prices
The Congress on Monday attacked the government over rising food prices, with Jairam Ramesh citing steep increases in spices, pulses and onions and questioning PM Modi's silence.
The Congress on Monday turned up the heat on the government over food inflation, with its communications chief Jairam Ramesh invoking the lyrics of a 1977 Bollywood hit to press the Prime Minister on the cost of everyday essentials.
In a Hindi post on social media, Mr. Ramesh said food prices had "broken the back" of the middle class and the poor, and that the cost of daily-use commodities was climbing beyond the reach of ordinary households. He shared a media report which claimed that the surge in prices of food items, pulses and cooking oil had upended household budgets.
Citing figures from the past month, the Congress general secretary said spice prices had climbed 10% to 25%. Green cardamom, he said, had moved from ₹4,000 to ₹4,400 a kilogram, black cardamom from ₹2,400 to ₹2,800, and cumin from ₹360 to ₹400. Mace had risen from ₹2,500 to ₹3,000 a kilogram.
Among pulses, arhar dal was quoted at ₹130 a kilogram against ₹100 earlier, chana dal at ₹100 against ₹70, and urad at ₹140 against ₹120. In edible oils, mustard oil had risen to ₹210 a litre from ₹190, while Safola oil had climbed to ₹280 a litre from ₹240, he said.
Mr. Ramesh also pointed to onion prices, saying the all-India average retail price had risen from ₹29.50 a kilogram in June to ₹53.78 in September — an increase of 82.3% in about three and a half months.
With pulses and staple foods slipping out of reach in poor households, the Congress leader asked why the Prime Minister had not spoken on the issue. He questioned whether the promised "achche din" existed only in sermons, and asked whether people going hungry while the government stayed silent represented a new India.
He then quoted the refrain "Kya hua tera vada? Woh kasam, woh irada?" from the song in the 1977 film Hum Kisise Kum Nahin.
The Congress has repeatedly raised the issue of rising prices and accused the government of pursuing anti-people policies. The government has rejected those claims and pointed to GDP numbers in its defence.
Mr. Ramesh urged the government to act immediately against what he called uncontrolled inflation and to provide relief to the common people.