Jaitley draws flak from opposition leaders for rising inflation

Opposition leaders today attacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for saying that hoarding and poor rainfall were responsible for rising inflation.

Amidst the increasing prices of fuel and vegetables, Jaitley had made a statement in which he blamed hoarding and lack of rainfall for affecting the growth and therefore resulting in price rise.

Reproaching Jaitley, Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, "When we used to say the same thing they never listened to us and now they are also saying that only due to rising inflation. They came into power with a promise that they will reduce inflation. We knew that the biggest reason behind inflation is that people store goods and do their black marketing. Jaitley is speaking the same language today but now the country needs results. Inflation should go down and whatever has been promised to people should be fulfilled."

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) General Secretary, Tariq Anwar too accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making false promises to the people just for the sake of winning elections.

"Modi said during the elections that they will do miracles to bring down price rise immediately when he comes to power. While we were in power even the economists had understood that it is not possible for anyone to reduce price rise all of a sudden, but just to win election they made false promises. Now that they have come to power they are realizing the ground reality and making excuses that the economic indiscipline under Congress regime is resulting in price rise," said Anwar.

Meanwhile, a former member of parliament from Congress, P.C. Chacko asked why inflation has increased since BJP has come to power.

"Hoarding is a major problem it affected our government also in the past. It is the responsibility of the state government to do the de-hoarding operation and they should be vigilant then only we can control the prices. Producing more alone will not control the prices. The government should explain why inflation has gone up in one month since they have come into power, just blaming will not help." said Chacko.