The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over rising prices and unemployment and asked for the steps taken to bring relief to the common Indian.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh said, "The BJP has brought about a doom with 7s -- retail Inflation is at 7.01 per cent, unemployment is at 7.8 per cent and Rupee has depreciated 7 per cent in the last six months vs the US dollar. While these are worrying data points, the BJP government is in deep slumber."

He said that the government is intentionally looking away while the commoners suffer day in and day out. While on one hand the income is decreasing and people are losing jobs, inflation is giving a killer blow, Vallabh said.

The Congress spokesperson alleged that in the last eight years of the government the focus of the BJP has been on polarisation and disharmony whereas distressing issues such as rising inflation, unemployment and depreciating Rupee are nowhere in its agenda.

"The country is witnessing the highest unemployment in the last 45 years. Various reports have time and again highlighted the fact that 97 per cent Indians got poorer in just one year between 2020 and 2021. Unemployment rate has gone up to 7.8 per cent with a loss of 25 lakh jobs in June 2022 among the salaried employees, as per the CMIE, " said Vallabh.

"Retail inflation was recorded at 7.01 per cent in June 2022 as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released on Tuesday and 25 lakh salaried people lost jobs in June 2022, startups have been made to fire more than 11,000 employees in 2022, Rupee at an all-time low of 79.66 against the US Dollar, GDP growth stagnant -- these portray the sorry state of macroeconomic affairs," the Congress spokesperson added.

The Congress spokesperson highlighted that 25 lakh salaried people losing jobs in June 2022, start-ups have been made to fire more than 11,000 employees in 2022, Rupee is at an all-time low of 79.66 against the US Dollar and GDP growth is stagnant. All of these portray the sorry state of macroeconomic affairs.

"The BJP government has been incompetent, negligent and apathetic at the same time. At such a time, a draconian decision on imposing 5% GST was taken just a few days back on pre-packed and pre-labelled grains, fish, paneer, lassi, honey, jaggery, wheat flour, buttermilk, meat/fish (not frozen) and puffed rice (muri)", he said.

He asked the ruling BJP three questions:

• What has the government done to bring relief to the common Indian as far as inflation is concerned? Increasing GST on items such as flour will only propel the inflation.

• Why is there complete silence on part of the Modi Government’s to tackle a barrage of macro-economic indicators gone wrong? Stagnant economy, depreciating rupee and rising unemployment?

• With RBI’s projection for inflation at 7.4% for the next quarter, what are the measures that the government has in mind?