PM Modi clueless about ensuring India’s energy security: Congress

The Indian National Congress (INC) on Sunday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his appeal to citizens to cut fuel consumption and save foreign exchange amid the ongoing US-Iran conflict, accusing the government of failing to safeguard India’s energy security despite the war dragging on for nearly three months.

The Opposition party said it was “shameless, reckless and downright immoral” for the Prime Minister to ask ordinary citizens to bear the burden of the crisis instead of preparing contingency measures to shield the economy from global disruptions.

In a strongly worded post on X, Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal questioned the Centre’s preparedness in handling the fallout of the conflict in West Asia.

“Three months into the Iran-US war and PM Modi is still clueless about ensuring India’s energy security,” Venugopal said.

“It is shameless, reckless and downright immoral that the PM is pushing the common citizen into inconvenience, instead of building contingencies to ensure our economy is unaffected by this global crisis,” he added.

Targeting Modi’s governance priorities, Venugopal alleged that political calculations had overshadowed economic planning.

“When elections and petty politics are the sole priority of the PM, the end result is an impending economic catastrophe,” he said.

He further demanded that the government immediately ensure adequate fuel reserves and prevent hardship for citizens.

“The PM and his government must make all necessary arrangements to ensure India has ample fuel reserves and no citizen faces any hardship as a result of their lack of planning,” Venugopal asserted.

The Congress attack came hours after Modi, addressing a rally organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Hyderabad, urged citizens to adopt austerity measures to help India weather the economic impact of the prolonged Gulf conflict.

Acknowledging that the war had sharply increased prices of petrol and fertilisers, Modi said global supply chain disruptions were creating mounting challenges despite government efforts to manage the crisis.

“That’s why, during the global crisis, keeping the country above all else, we have to take resolutions,” the prime minister said.

Calling for judicious use of petroleum products, Modi encouraged citizens to rely more on metro rail services, carpooling, electric vehicles and railway freight transport to reduce fuel consumption and save foreign exchange.

“We have developed work from home, virtual meetings, video conferencing and many other methods during Corona. We got habituated to it. The need of the hour is to resume those methods,” he said.

In a broader appeal for economic restraint, Modi urged people to postpone foreign trips and gold purchases for one year.

“We have to save foreign exchange by any means,” he said.

The Prime Minister also advocated reducing dependence on edible oil imports and chemical fertilisers, while promoting natural farming and swadeshi products to make India more self-reliant amid the geopolitical turmoil in West Asia.

The ongoing US-Iran conflict has rattled global energy markets and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for global crude oil supplies, intensifying concerns over inflation and fuel availability in import-dependent economies like India.

With PTI inputs