Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday warned that a 1991-like economic crisis was looming over the country and termed the Narendra Modi government’s handling of the economy a “catastrophic failure”.

“This is not a cyclical problem; this is a structural problem. We cannot get out of it without changing direction,” the former Congress president told a news conference in the capital.

Rahul said the Congress had the ability to pull India back from the brink the way it had in 1991.

“There is a structural failure and the government is in panic. The government and Narendra Modi are fearing… as he is unable to fulfil the promises made to people. He is seeing this and he is in panic. Both Prime Minister and finance minister are in panic and they do not know what to do. This is the reality,” he said.

He added that the government was living off the fuel prices, which were being increased frequently.

Later the same day, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended the launch of a book on VD Savarkar in the capital PTI

A few hours after Rahul spoke, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman was seen at the launch of a book on V.D. Savarkar. Earlier in the day, the prices of cooking gas across all categories, including subsidised gas, were hiked by Rs 25 per cylinder — the third straight increase in rates in less than two months.

The Congress MP provided another expansion for GDP — “gas, diesel, petrol” — in a swipe at the government, which had claimed the country’s gross domestic product was on the rise.

“When they say the GDP is rising, they mean gas-diesel-petrol price,” he said.

Rahul urged the youth to ask the government what it had done with the Rs 23 lakh crore earned from fuel prices.

“I want the young people of this country to think about this. This is about your future, you have to ask the question, who is this money going to?” he said.

“Rs 23 lakh crore has been taken out of your pockets, out of the pockets of farmers, labourers, poor people.... The question is, where is it going?”

A handwritten chart held up by Rahul shows how Indian fuel prices have gone up since 2014 while international crude prices have dipped. PTI

Rahul said the rise in fuel prices could have been justified had it resulted from an increase in the price of crude and gas in the international market.

“Crude oil prices were $105 per barrel when we were in power; today it is $71. That is a decrease of 32 per cent. International gas prices were $880 per tonne, today it is $653 per tonne — a 26 per cent drop,” he said.

Holding up a handwritten chart, Rahul said that when the UPA left office in 2014, the price of LPG was Rs 410 a cylinder. Today, it is Rs 885 a cylinder — an increase of 116 per cent.

“On one side, there is demonetisation taking place with farmers, labourers, small traders, MSMEs, contract workers, salaried class, honest industrialists being hit. On the other side, there is dramatic monetisation taking place,” Rahul said.

“Three to five big industrialist friends of the Prime Minister are being benefited. There is a transfer of wealth taking place from the poor, from the weak, to the Prime Minister’s friends.”

Additional reporting by PTI