'BJP will not be allowed to...': Rahul Gandhi on price rise amid Modi's UCC push

The Congress party on Wednesday intensified its attack on the ruling BJP at the Centre over the price of essential commodities, with senior leader Rahul Gandhi alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party was busy increasing the wealth of the capitalists. Listing the rates of tomatoes, lentils, and cooking gas, Gandhi said that the poor are yearning to eat while the middle class is struggling to save some money.

"Tomato: ₹140 per kg, Cauliflower: ₹80 per kg, Toor Dal: ₹148 per kg, Arhar Dal: ₹219 per kg and cooking gas cylinder above ₹1,100. The BJP government, which is busy in increasing the wealth of capitalists and collecting taxes from the public, has forgotten the poor and middle-class families," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

“In the Congress-ruled states, we reduced the prices of gas to provide relief from inflation, put money in the accounts of the poor for financial assistance,” Gandhi wrote in Hindi.

“Bharat Jodo Yatra is a pledge to remove hatred, remove inflation, unemployment and bring equality - BJP will not be allowed to divert attention from public issues,” he added, in a veiled reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push for Uniform Civil Code (UCC) ahead of crucial assembly elections.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi made a strong pitch for the UCC, saying the Constitution also mentions having equal rights for all citizens. Addressing a gathering of party workers in Bhopal, Modi also said the BJP has decided it would not adopt the path of appeasement and vote bank politics.

“You tell me, in a home, how can there be one law for one member and another law for another member?” Modi said. “Will that home be able to function? Then how will the country be able to function with such a dual system? We have to remember that even in India’s Constitution, there is a mention of equal rights for all,” he said. “These people (opposition) level allegations against us but the reality is that they chant Musalman, Musalman. Had they really been (working) in the interests of Muslims, then Muslim families would not have been lagging in education and jobs,” he said.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also targeted Prime Minister Modi over the issue of price rise, in an apparent dismissal of Modi's UCC pitch as a diversionary tactic.

“The model of diverting the attention of the people from the price hike they are facing neither worked in Himachal and Karnataka nor will it work in Madhya Pradesh,” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said in a tweet.