'Arhar Modi': Rahul Gandhi attacks government on price rise

Often accused of impulsive public outbursts and a lack of disconnect with the masses, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday rattled the Modi government raising two crucial issues — the price rise (mainly pulses) and large-scale loan write-offs to corporates.

Participating in an over five-hour-long debate on rising prices in Lok Sabha, Rahul engaged BJP's lawmaker Poonam Mahajan in a spat, who was sitting right opposite the Opposition bench. "When someone goes to the market...well you wouldn't be going to the market, someone else would do that for you," Rahul pointed towards Mahajan, who also represents dynastic politics, being the daughter of former Union minister and BJP leader Pramod Mahajan. She hit back, asking Rahul, when he had last gone to market to buy pulses. Finance minister Arun Jaitley and minister for power Piyush Goel were smiling, seemed enjoying the spat.

Rahul also threw a challenge to the Prime Minister to give a date when the prices of pulses, potatoes and tomatoes would come down, and ended his speech with a slogan in vogue: "Arhar Modi, Arhar Modi, Arhar Modi" to remind the BJP of its 2014 poll slogan of "Har Har Modi, Har Har Modi." (Arhar is another name of tur dal)

"A farmer sells his pulses at the MSP (minimum support price) of Rs 50 per kg, but pays Rs 180 when he goes to buy it. Who is pocketing this difference of Rs 130," he asked hinting at the middleman traders, votebank of the BJP, getting protection of the government to jack up the prices. In UPA time, the difference was just Rs 30, the MSP then being Rs 45 and the market price Rs 75," Rahul underlined.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley intervened in the debate to tell Rahul not to look for corruption in the business of pulses, asserting that the market price has nothing to do with the MSP as it rises and falls on the principle of demand and supply. He said the government is already trying to control prices of pulses and hopes a good monsoon would increase production to bring down the prices. He also criticised Rahul for asking the PM to set a date by which the prices would come down, asserting that the issues are settled through policies rather than giving dates. He said the government was working on policies to encourage farmers to produce more to move India towards self-sufficiency in pulses.

Jaitley banked upon the statistics to show the NDA government had brought down the high inflation "inherited from the UPA" and hoped that prices of the essential commodities would come down further after a "good" monsoon. Rahul reminded Modi his election speech of February 16, 2014 in Himachal Pradesh on the poor's plight shedding tears at "maa, bachhe rote hain, aansu peekar sote hain (mother and children cry and sleep taking nothing but tears)."

But, now referring to a "happy birthday party" celebrated a few weeks ago by the NDA government on completing two years in power, Rahul said Modi spoke about Swachh Bharat, Make in India, Connect India, Digital India, Start Up and Stand Up, but not a word on the prices of pulses potatoes and tomatoes.

The Congress vice-president went on to reel out prices of some commodities in 2014 and 2016, tomato price going up from Rs 18 to Rs 55 a kilo, potatoes from Rs 23 to Rs 28, chana dal from Rs 50 to Rs 110, urad dal from Rs 70 to Rs 160 and tur dal from Rs 75 to Rs 180-230. "You can make false claims on Swachh Bharat cleaning up India, make in India giving jobs to thousands, and start-up India strengthening the economy, but you cannot on the rising prices," he said.

He said the Prime Minister claims to have saved Rs 2 lakh crore by plugging loopholes in subsidies and government expenditure. He said he has no problem that Modi has given Rs 52,000 crore out of it to the industrialists by way of write-off of their bank loans. But he only wants to know how much he gave to the farmers and mothers who have to buy the pulses at Rs 200 a kilo. "Ek rupiya nahi diya (not a single rupee)." Rahul said his appeal to Modi is to help the industrialists as much as he likes but not to forget the farmers and poor women.

Rahul also chided the PM for failing to safeguard the interests of the poor. "You said you wanted to be the people's chowkidaar," he said. "It has been left to the Congress to serve as chowkidaar," he alleged, citing the PM's attempts to "snatch" farmers' land with a controversial proposal on acquiring farming land for industry that was shelved by the government after wide political opposition.