New Delhi, Jan 24 (FN Bureau) The Congress on Friday hit out at the Narendra Modi government over the falling value of the Indian rupee against the US dollar, alleging that the Indian currency has witnessed 50 percent fall under the BJP government. The party also flagged its grave concern over the Indian currency almost touching the 87 mark against the dollar. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “Looks like Prime Minister Narendra Modi has resolved to make the rupee hit the century against the dollar.” She asked the government whether it realised how much impact the falling rupee will have on the common people as imports will be expensive which will lead to inflation and price rise of essential commodities. The Congress spokesperson said that despite the RBI pumping in 80 billion dollars since September 2024 to arrest the fall, nothing had happened to redeem the value of the rupee, which is in a free fall.
Shrinate alleged that the foreign exchange reserves in the country right now were lowest in the last ten months at 625 billion dollars against the high of 704 billion dollars in September 2024. She said, “When Modi took over as the Prime Minister in 2014, rupee was valued at 58 against the dollar. It had fallen by over 50 percent during the ten years of Modi regime”. The spokesperson also alleged that Modi has the dubious distinction of being the highest “contributing Prime Minister” towards the depreciation in the value of rupee.Referring to the late Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure, Shrinate said, “The Indian economy, like the economies of other developing countries suffered major shocks due to the “tapering tantrums” of the US Federal Reserve, which led the value of rupee falling to Rs 69 against the dollar”.She claimed that within a few months, under the leadership of Dr Singh, the rupee’s value was restored to 58 against the dollar, besides there was 35 billion dollar worth of foreign investment. The Congress leader warned that the falling value of rupee will have a direct impact on the people as it will lead to inflation.