New Delhi : The Congress today lashed out at the Modi government over the free fall of rupee against the dollar. The party flagged its grave concern over the rupee dangerously almost touching 87 mark, against the US dollar.
“Looks like the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has resolved to make the rupee hit the century against the dollar”, party spokesperson and Chairperson of the Social Media and Digital Platforms, Supriya Shrinate chided the government, during a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today.
She asked the government whether it realized 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.
Shrinate quoted Modi himself, as he used to say before becoming the Prime Minister, that “the Prime Minister’s dignity was falling along with the value of the rupee”. She wondered how low the PM’s dignity had fallen today.
She disclosed 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. She said 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.
Pointing out that when Modi took over as the Prime Minister in 2014, rupee was valued at 58 against the dollar, she said, it had fallen by over 50 percent during the ten years of Modi regime. She said, Modi has the dubious distinction of being the highest “contributing Prime Minister” towards the depreciation in the value of rupee.
She gave the figures since independence. Saying, while Nehru contributed to the overall depreciation by 2% and by 5% each during first and second terms of Mrs Indira Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi and VP Singh each contributed to 6 percent overall depreciation.
She said, during the tenure of PV Narsimha Rao, who inherited a shattered economy, the contribution to rupee depreciation was 17 percent. During Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure the over all value of rupee eroded by 11 percent, she added. Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure contributed to 17 percent fall in historic value of the Rupee, she said.
Supriya Shrinate revealed that during the tenure of Prime Minister Modi the total contribution to fall in value of rupee has been by over record 34 percent.
Referring to Dr Singh’s tenure, she 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 said, 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.
Warning that the falling value of rupee will have a direct impact on the people as it will lead to inflation, she asked whether the government realized the seriousness of the situation and whether it had any strategy to check it.
The Congress spokesperson apprehended that the Reserve Bank of India might increase the interest rates, which will have consequential effect on the EMIs thus adding more financial burden to the common people.
