Rahul Gandhi attacks PM Modi over appeal to cut fuel use, foreign travel
Government forces people to be told what to buy, where to go and what to avoid, says Congress leader
The political war over India’s economic response to the ongoing US-Iran conflict intensified on Sunday after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for urging citizens to cut fuel consumption, avoid foreign travel and postpone gold purchases to conserve foreign exchange.
Reacting sharply to the prime minister’s appeal, Rahul Gandhi said the government was shifting the burden of its failures onto ordinary citizens instead of taking responsibility for the country’s economic challenges.
Taking to social media platform X, the Congress leader wrote: “Yesterday, Modi ji called upon the public to make sacrifices — do not buy gold, do not travel abroad, consume less petrol, cut down on fertilisers and cooking oil, take the Metro, and work from home. These are not words of counsel; they are evidence of failure.”
He further alleged that the government had pushed the country into a situation where people were now being told “what to buy and what not to buy, where to go and where not to go”.
“Over the span of 12 years, the country has been brought to such a juncture that the public now has to be told what to buy and what not to buy, where to go and where not to go. Time and again, they shift the responsibility onto the public simply to evade their own accountability,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The remarks came hours after PM Modi, addressing a BJP rally in Hyderabad, appealed to citizens to reduce non-essential foreign exchange outflows amid mounting global uncertainty triggered by the prolonged US-Iran war.
“We have to save foreign exchange by any means,” the prime minister said, urging people to defer gold purchases and foreign vacations for at least one year.
Framing the move as part of a broader campaign for “economic patriotism”, Modi also advocated reduced fuel consumption, greater use of public transport, work-from-home systems, natural farming and support for swadeshi products.
The prime minister’s appeal comes as rising crude oil prices, supply-chain disruptions and instability in West Asia continue to put pressure on import-dependent economies like India.
With IANS inputs