The Congress on Friday created a social media storm on rising prices of petroleum products, alleging that the Narendra Modi government was working on a sinister plan to establish the monopoly of a few capitalists.

Rahul Gandhi led the party leaders in attacking the government, alleging a planned dacoity to help crony capitalists. He said the money collected by the government was not being used in funding education and healthcare of common people.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the government was only offering false excuses to justify its anti-people policies.

The SpeakUpIndia campaign trended throughout the day on Twitter with many Congress leaders posting videos with appeals to rise against the oppressive government.

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said: “Modi wants to burden the people and destroy India in his quest to help a few capitalists. The high prices are artificial. When crude oil was selling for over $100 per barrel, Manmohan Singh kept the prices of petrol and diesel low. Now when crude oil is hovering at $30-$60 per barrel, petrol-diesel prices are touching Rs 100.”

Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate pointed out that the lockdown and economic recession whittled down incomes and snatched jobs but the government was using this crisis to fill its coffers.

Alleging that “Modi and truth had no relations with each other”, she contested the charge that the states were responsible for the price rise.

The party also held a media conference to highlight the issue of price rise and clubbed the planned sale of profitable public sector units to paint a grim picture.

Spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said, “The government has no revenue model. It has collected lakhs of crore only by taxing fuel available cheap in international market. There is no other source of revenue generation. We request the government to change the name of the department of investment and public asset management, which works under the finance ministry, to distress privatisation drive management department.”

Vallabh added, “The Modi government’s motto is: Hum do, hamare do/Jo bhi mile, bech do. The entire budget this year reverberated with cries of sale. This is distress sale. There is no strategic disinvestment. This is a privatisation drive. We all know who will buy these national assets, I don’t have to reveal who bought airports, ports, mines and shipping corporation. The entire country knows who will own all these assets. The government is misleading by talking about V-shaped recovery as they are working on K-shaped recovery. Some people, we all know who, will rise fast and others will fall. The unemployment rate has started rising again. The K-shaped recovery is obvious.”

He accused the government of deliberately creating situations in which profit-making PSUs can be handed over to crony capitalists for cheap.

He said, “The LIC is a case in point. This government forced the LIC to make risky investments worth Rs 10 lakh crore in sick companies. That much investment was not made in decades by the LIC. During the UPA’s time, the LIC’s NPA was 1.5 per cent. Today it is 8.7 per cent. All this is being done to sell these assets to crony capitalists.”