Launching a campaign against the increase in petrol and diesel prices, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, when the Manmohan Singh government left office in 2014, the price of a litre of petrol was ₹71.5. But now it has soared to ₹101, an increase of 42 per cent.

Diesel has increased 55 per cent and price of LPG cylinders have gone up by 116 per cent. “The Narendra Modi government demonetised people and monetised a few corporate houses in the last seven years,” he charged and added that the Centre earned ₹23-lakh crore by increasing prices and levying additional taxes on petroleum products.

‘Is GDP gas, diesel, petrol?’

For Narendra Modi, GDP means a rise in prices of gas, diesel and petrol, Gandhi quipped. “On one hand there is demonetisation and on the other there is monetisation. Whose demonetisation is taking place — farmers, labourers, small traders and informal sector, MSMEs, contract workers, salaried class and honest industrialists. Whose monetisation is taking place — four-five friends of Modi,” Gandhi alleged.

During the UPA regime, international market prices of petrol and diesel were increasing. “Gas prices were at $880 a tonne, today it is $653, that is a 26 per cent drop,” he said. He warned that if prices are not in control now, the government is unlikely to act when the international prices start increasing.

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