New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP government of “manufacturing controversies” and using emotions to divide people so that they do not raise issues of misgovernance and economic mismanagement.
The party said the government did not want people to raise the problems faced by them due to misgovernance, including the high fuel prices, and demanded that it remove the “tax” imposed on petroleum products to provide relief to the common man.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the government over high fuel prices and alleged that it was “looting people”.
“The Modi government is determined to loot people, just to ensure development of “two”,” he said using the hashtag “FuelLoot”.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said at a press conference that since 2014, the BJP ecosystem has always tried to keep people emotionally occupied.
“Their strategy is predictable. Generate these emotions and create villains. They will keep invoking villains against whom our collective emotions can be directed.
“They do this to keep us blinded by overwhelming emotions. They do not want us to see the impact of their bad governance on our lives and livelihoods,” he said.
They raise new issues and manufacture controversies to evoke emotions, Khera said.
The Congress leader said the BJP does not want people to be outraged about unemployment, collapse of MSMEs, failure of foreign policy, border mismanagement, farm crisis, women’s safety and the dismantling of India brick by brick by them.
He said the government does not want people to be outraged by the suffering of farmers, unemployed youth and the middle class due to their ‘anti-people policies’.
“They choose to use emotions to divide us. But the emotion of suffering is one emotion that unites every single Indian. We stand one in our suffering. Every single household is facing economic hardships of one kind or another,” he said.
“India refuses to get busy in manufactured controversies, fake outrage and state-sponsored distractions. India demands responsible governance. India deserves a government which works and thinks for every single Indian, not just a government of ‘Hum do, Humare do’,” he said.
Khera said over the last six years and eight months, the government has earned over Rs 20 lakh crore by imposing additional excise duty on petrol and diesel.
Asking whether the effect of Rs 20 lakh crore spending is being witnessed in any sector, he said, “Why should the common Indian pay the price for a government which is only working for a handful of corporates.”
“We demand an immediate withdrawal of this additional ‘Modi tax’ imposed over the last six years and eight months. This in itself will reduce petrol price to Rs 61.92 per litre and Diesel price to Rs 47.51 per litre. Every common Indian deserves this relief immediately,” he said.