On Wednesday, a spokesperson from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ridiculed Rahul Gandhi for his tweet on the escalating prices of food grains in the country, highlighting his apparent lack of knowledge that ‘Tur’ and ‘Arhar’ are the same.
In response to a tweet from Supriya Shrinate, the Congress social media head, criticising Union Minister Smriti Irani for the exorbitant prices of essential commodities, BJP spokesperson Shehzada Poonawalla shared a screenshot of Rahul Gandhi’s now-altered tweet and remarked, “First inform your pizza-eating leader that Tur and Arhar are the same… You are adopting a troll’s language, and the response will be in a similar vein – lower your ego and anger.”
Earlier today, Rahul Gandhi directed his criticism towards the Modi government for the surge in food grain and vegetable prices.
Gandhi tweeted, “Tomato: ₹140 per kg, Cauliflower: ₹80 per kg, Toor Dal: ₹148 per kg, Arhar Dal: ₹219 per kg, and cooking gas cylinder over ₹1,100. The BJP government, engrossed in increasing the wealth of capitalists and burdening the public with taxes, has forgotten about the welfare of the poor and middle-class families.”
He further added, “In states governed by the Congress, we have reduced gas prices to alleviate inflation and provided financial assistance to the underprivileged.”
The tweet has since been edited to include the word ‘branded’ before ‘arhar.’
Food grain and vegetable prices have experienced a surge nationwide in recent times. Wholesale tomato prices, which stood at ₹15 per kg and retail prices at ₹40 per kg on June 19, rose to ₹60 per kg and ₹80 per kg, respectively, on June 26.
Furthermore, wheat prices in the market increased from ₹2,129 per quintal to ₹2,302 per quintal between June 7 and the previous month.
Traders attribute the rise in vegetable prices to fluctuating weather conditions and transportation challenges. They anticipate that the situation will normalize within the next three to four weeks.
