The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday heard that “in every city, there is one Nainsuk Lal”.

Had Prime Minister Narendra Modi been in the House, chances are remote that Nainsuk Lal would have rung a bell. Just as the phrase “achchhe din” would have sounded unfamiliar to the Prime Minister.

Amnesia-inducing words and sentences echoed in the House as the Opposition cited statements made by Modi as Gujarat chief minister to corner the Centre on price rise, inflation and unemployment, wondering when the promised “achchhe din” would show up.

Participating in a short-duration discussion on rising prices of essential items, Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal cited the suffering of Nainsuk Lal, a security guard in New Delhi who lives with his wife and two children.

Nainsuk Lal earns Rs 12,000 a month and spends Rs 4,000 on rent, Rs 2,000 on tuition fees of his kids, Rs 1,200 on an LPG cylinder and Rs 3,000 on food, Jha said. The cumulative expense of Rs 10,200 left him with “hardly any money for health and other expenses”, the RJD parliamentarian said.

“In every city, there is one Nainsuk Lal. There is no employment. Income is not increasing. So youths are agitated. Bihar is gradually becoming a source state for unskilled labour,” Jha said.

The Opposition parties demanded revocation of the 5 per cent GST that was recently imposed on food items such as curd, lassi, pulses, wheat, paneer, butter milk, jaggery, puffed rice, flattened rice, oat and natural honey.

Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said that when Modi was chief minister, he had said “doob maro, doob maro, Dilliwallon, doob maro (drown yourselves, central government)” while going on the offensive on price rise. Gohil sought to turn the tables on the Modi government at the Centre by asking why GST was being imposed on food items.

Trinamul Congress leader Derek O’Brien said retail inflation was 7 per cent in the last quarter in India while it was 9 per cent in the US, so there was no reason why the Indian rupee should weaken against the dollar.

“Modi had in 2013 said the rupee was losing strength because of corruption. We agree with you. Now the new GST rates are being attributed to the GST Council. The GST Council is a recommendatory body,” O’Brien said, suggesting that the Centre had the discretion not to impose GST on certain items.

The DMK’s Tiruchi Siva referred to Modi’s promise of “achchhe din”.

“Where are the good days? You have completed eight years and you have failed to bring back black money from abroad. You failed to deposit Rs 15 lakh in the accounts of common people as promised,” he said.

“You are benefiting the corporates, finishing the poor people — this is not the right gesture of the government,” Siva said.

V. Vijayasai Reddy of the YSR Congress Party said the Centre had failed to control inflation.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh alleged that the government had written off loans totalling crores of rupees given to corporates.

Raghav Chadha of the AAP said rural India was also facing the impact of inflation — both as a producer of food and as a consumer of goods.

“The cost of food production for farmers in the past year has gone up by around 21 per cent. But his income has not gone up despite the assurances to double farm income,” he said. For the first time, rural inflation is higher than urban inflation, Chadha said.

Mahua Maji of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha said poverty and inflation were creating havoc in tribal areas.

Congress MP Rajani Ashokrao Patil said women were the most affected by price rise. A report from the Comptroller and Auditor General suggests that 65 per cent of LPG cylinders under the Ujjwala scheme are not used because the price has crossed Rs 1,000, Patil said.

The CPI’s Binoy Viswam asked the government to increase allocation under rural job scheme MGNREGA.

Replying to the allegations, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the decision to impose GST on certain food items was taken without any opposition from any state minister at the 47th meeting of the GST Council.

“The GST Council has all ministers from every state as members. At the 47th meeting, it is a matter of record that all states agreed to the proposal. Not one spoke against it. There was not a single dissent,” she said.

She said GST exemptions had been withdrawn from only pre-packed items and if a seller buys goods in bulk and sells them loose, there would be no tax, appearing to battle suggestions that the government was burdening the poor.

Food items were being taxed before the GST regime came into existence, she said, adding that Bengal was charging 5 per cent tax on paneer.

O’Brien wanted to raise a point of order to counter Sitharaman’s claim but it was not allowed. Trinamul members staged a walkout. Leader of the House Piyush Goyal accused Trinamul of running away from a discussion.

Sitharaman said no GST was being levied on crematorium services but if a new crematorium is being built, the person doing so would have to pay for the construction materials.

About the allegation of the AAP’s Singh on loan write-offs, Sitharaman said these were not waivers and it was the duty of banks to recover the money.

Additional reporting from PTI