At a time when opposition parties are criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for austerity measures in light of the US-Iran war in West Asia and its impact on India, the BJP-led government has turned back the clock in the Congress Party by reminding it of similar measures that have been taken several times since independence.
Prime Minister Modi was on Sunday He appealed to Indians to reduce fuel consumption and not buy any gold for a year, among other things. The Congress and other opposition parties criticized the Prime Minister for his appeal, with opposition leader Rahul Gandhi describing the appeals as “evidence of failure.”
BJP responds to PM Modi’s criticism
Golden Call: Responding to criticism of Prime Minister Modi’s gold purchase appeal, sources in the government cited former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his appeal for gold donation in view of the 1962 war with China.
“Jawaharlal Nehru not only appealed to citizens to reduce their purchases of gold. He also launched a nationwide campaign asking Indians to financially donate their gold jewelery to the National War Fund,” they said, describing it as a “massive mobilization of personal wealth during a national crisis”.
BJP sources also pointed to what they called the “gold crackdown” launched by the Congress government. The sources said that the Gold Control Act of 1962, which was re-enacted in 1968, imposed comprehensive restrictions on the ownership of gold in India.
“By 1963, the production of jewelry finer than 14 carats was a criminal enterprise. Citizens were legally prohibited from owning gold bullion or coins. They were not discouraged. Banned. Jewelers could not possess more than 100 grams at any time. Licensed dealers were prohibited from trading with each other,” sources said. They also cited a 1966 statement by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in which she said that India’s gold-buying habit was depleting foreign reserves. They also referred to the “four desperate calls” made by former finance minister P Chidambaram on gold in 2013.
Reducing cooking oil: The BJP’s response to criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to Indians to reduce the use of cooking oil is to remind them of the calls made by several Congress prime ministers, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, to skip meals amid the food crisis, head of the BJP’s IT cell. As Amit Malviya pointed out.
Nehru had appealed to the northern states to abstain from eating rice amid food shortages in the 1950s, and Shastri had asked Indians not to eat a meal every Monday during the 1965 war with Pakistan. To be sure, India was a newly independent country in the early 1950s and was not yet self-sufficient in food, while in 1965 it was in war mode.
Reducing gasoline and diesel consumption: Malviya and others in the BJP pointed to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement on increasing fuel bill subsidy while global oil prices rose significantly.
“Where will we find the money for this? Money doesn’t grow on trees,” Singh said.
