‘Inflation higher when Cong governed at Centre’

Chandigarh: Inflation was higher whenever the Congress governed at the Centre, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday and asserted that India’s unemployment rate is the lowest among big countries.

Addressing an election rally in Punjab’s Ferozepur parliamentary constituency, Singh also hit out at the Arvind Kejriwal-led dispensation in Delhi, saying liquor shops opened in every street during his tenure. Attacking the Congress, Singh said the inflation rate was at 2 per cent from 1947-1950, and it “increased to 13.8 per cent during Nehru’s time. From 1964-66, it was over 10 per cent”. During Morarji Desai’s government, the first thing that was done was to lift restrictions on the movement of farm produce from one state to another, he said. As a result, inflation, which had reached 30 per cent, came down to 7 per cent, Singh claimed. “From 1947 to 2022, if you go by the record on inflation, whenever the Congress governed, it increased manifold,” the senior BJP leader said.

When they were voted out of power, inflation came down. “He said the Opposition is spreading falsehood on unemployment, inflation. They say inflation has increased during BJP rule. Our prime minister has, to a large extent, controlled inflation,” he said. Singh was rallying support for the BJP’s Ferozepur candidate Gurmeet Singh Sodhi.

He also upped the ante on unemployment, often used by the Opposition parties to target the BJP government at the Centre. The unemployment rate in India is the lowest among the big countries, Singh asserted. “In South Africa, the unemployment rate is 32.6, 15.55 in Iraq, 7.9 in Brazil, 7.6 in Italy, 7.2 in France, 5.3 in China and 3.8 in the US. In India, it is 3.2 per cent,” he said. Yet, the Opposition parties spread falsehood, he charged.