New Delhi, August 1 (Agency) Opposition MPs urged government to take urgent steps to control inflation, while the ruling party MPs dismissed the opposition’s charge of people suffering due to spiralling inflation in the country as the Lok Sabha took up a debate on the issue. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was present in the House as the debate was taken up. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was also present. Initiating the debate in Lok Sabha, Congress leader Manish Tewari mentioned demonetisation as an important reason behind the economic downfall. He questioned what was gained out of demonetisation, and also talked about the unemployment situation. Tewari said India needs to create over 40 crore more jobs to be able to compare with developed nations, and said the government is not doing anything about it. BJP’s Nishikant Dubey however said there was no price rise, and also took a dig at Tewari saying, “if the heart and mind are not together, even good speakers cannot speak”.
Dubey said the Congress did not intend to discuss price rise, but “rise of a son”. He said the situation of price rise prevails across the world, adding that people should be thankful to PM Narendra Modi that food grains were provided to 80 crore people. He denied that there was price rise, and also blamed opposition ruled states of not being fiscally prudent. “RBI is not ready to give money to many Opposition ruled states because they are giving out freebies…” said Dubey, causing uproar from the Opposition benches. DMK’s Kanimozi meanwhile questioned what happened to the government’s promise of ending black money. Trinamool Congress’ Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar talked about the fuel price hike, and questioned if the government wanted people to eat raw vegetables. Dastidar also took a bite from a raw brinjal as she questioned how the common man was to deal with the rising fuel prices, including that of cooking gas.
Janata Dal – United (JD-U) leader Kaushalendra Kumar, while stating that price rise is not too much, also urged the government to look into the issues being raised by the opposition parties. Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s Nama Nageshwar Rao meanwhile slammed Dubey for naming Telangana among states which were giving out “freebies”, and also talked about center not procuring rice from farmers in his state. Apart from Dubey, former union minister Jayant Sinha also denied that there was price rise in the country. “The control that the BJP government has on food items like eggs, milk, and grains is impeccable and it could never happen under the previous government,” Sinha says. The debate was taken up in the Lok Sabha today following demands from the opposition parties. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was unwell recently, has also recovered and will reply to the debate.