The Congress on Saturday said the Narendra Modi government had become incapable of feeling the pain of the common people scarred by the savagely rising prices of essential commodities because of its obsession to serve the interest of crony capitalists.

Explaining the reasons behind Sunday’s public rally in Delhi, party leaders said the “insensitivity” of the Modi government was demonstrated in its audacious refusal to provide any relief to the poor despite rising frustration among the people and a sustained campaign by the Congress.

“Tomorrow’s rally is the culmination of the year-long campaign by the Congress against rising prices and the Bharat Jodo Yatra from September 7 will also be a reflection of the pain and sufferings of the people,” said general secretary in charge of organisation K.C. Venugopal.

The Congress held several demonstrations across the country, created ruckus in Parliament, MPs and senior leaders fought on the street and courted arrest, apart from a massive rally in December 2021 in Jaipur but the government didn’t betray any sign of nervousness.

The party believes the media’s reluctance to highlight the scourge of abnormally high prices has let the government off the hook and hence made passionate appeals for coverage on the eve of its Delhi rally. Party general secretary Ajay Maken said: “Has the government provided any relief? Instead, it reduced corporate tax from 30 per cent to 22 per cent to help the crony capitalists. And they are burdening the common people to make up for that loss. Their governance doctrine is to loot the poor to help the rich. We appeal to the media to show the truth; to raise people’s concern instead of diverting their attention by fuelling divisive agenda. Media should understand there are no bigger issues than inflation, unemployment and social harmony.”

The Congress has often highlighted the disturbing fact that the wealth of a few industrialists in India have increased by Rs 30 lakh crore in one year whereas the income of more than 8 out of 10 households has decreased during this period.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted a few days ago: “Five daily-wage earning Indians are committing suicide, every hour. Rs 85 crore is added to the wealth of PM’s favourite mitr (friend), every hour. PM’s only work — rob from common man to make his friends richer.”Delhi leaders said they sensed public connect with the Congress after a long time as all sections of the society appreciated the struggle against price rise. They expect a massive rally on Sunday because of the acute feeling of hurt caused by prices of essential items, ranging from vegetable to cooking gas cylinder and petrol to ration.

“Prices of essential commodities increased from 40 per cent to 175 per cent,” Venugopal said while Delhi chief Anil Chaudhary revealed they got over 40,000 responses in the last 48 hours on the number they released for showing solidarity on this issue through missed calls.Maken explained why they believed Modi’s insensitivity burdened the poor, saying: “During the UPA regime, cess and excise duty on petroleum products fetched Rs 1.57 lakh crore every year which is now Rs 6 lakh crore. The UPA government gave the subsidy of Rs 1.47 lakh crore every year, which has now been reduced to Rs 10,000 crore. They have imposed GST on essential food items.”

Contesting the government’s excuse that global factors were pushing up prices of petroleum products, Shaktisinh Gohil said: “There is a price monitoring department in the ministry of consumer affairs. It says inflation which was 4.23 per cent in April 2021 has jumped to 7.79 per cent in April 2022. Almost double. When Saudi Arab’s Aramco, which fixes the price of LPG, sold gas for $885.50 per metric tonne in 2013-14, the price of cooking gas cylinder in India was between Rs 405 and Rs 415. When the rate is $769 per metric tonne, Modi is selling the cylinder for Rs 1,100.”

Gohil added: “The average price of crude in the international market during the last three years of UPA was $108.46 per barrel. The average is $60.60 per barrel during the last years but petrol-diesel prices touched Rs 100 per litre. The finance minister said the oil bonds issued during the UPA burdened the government. The official data shows they have spent Rs 98,000 crore in servicing oil bonds while mopping up Rs 27 lakh crore by taxing petrol-diesel.”