Letter to Shri Rahul Gandhi

11 August 2022

Dear Rahul Gandhi Ji,

Your party’s purported concern about price rise & Inflation and the black protests last week have generally been regarded by the public at large as a spurious cover up of your and your family’s anger against the dare of ED to question you and your family in the National Herald case. As a public figure, if you be one, it would have been appropriate to join the investigation with dignity & honor, so that you come out clean, if you really are - or else truth does catch up, no matter who you are and what your lineage is.

On the issue of price rise and inflation, I wish to share with you the real data of the past 18 years so as you at least get your facts right to find reason & legitimacy for your and your party’s protests against price rise.

In the period 1999 to May 2004 with the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the centre, the officially reported inflation figures are;

BJP Led NDA Government

Rate of Inflation

1999 4.67%

2000 4.01%

2001 3.78%

2002 4.30%

2003 3.81%

The average annual inflation was restricted to 4.11% during this period.

As the Congress led UPA government came to power, the inflation indices spiralled upwards. See the table below;

Congress Led UPA Government

Rate of Inflation

2004 3.77%

2005 4.25%

2006 5.80%

2007 6.37%

2008 8.35%

2009 10.88%

2010 11.99%

2011 8.91%

2012 9.48%

2013 10.02%

2014 6.67%

The average rate of inflation during the ten years of Congress led UPA government is 7.86%, which is substantially higher than the figure of inflation during the BJP government 1999-2004.

BJP Led NDA Government

Rate of Inflation

2015 4.91%

2016 4.95%

2017 3.33%

2018 3.94%

2019 3.73%

And as the present Modi government got in 2014, the price rise and inflation dropped to an annual average of 4.17% down from annual average of 7.86% during the UPA time in government.

Please consider the predecessor and successor NDA governments led by BJP have performed substantially better than the UPA government led Congress. It is not my opinion, it is a matter of fact and figures do not lie. You neither raised your voice against price rise then, nor did your party's government do much to ameliorate the pain of the poor.

Rahul ji, your blatant lies and innuendoes are fast eroding your credibility! As your visibility rises and you become more acerbic, your voters continue to desert you and your party. Don’t you see that how people are rejecting you and your party - state after state; election after election? While INC vote hovered around 40% until 1989, you may have noticed that the drop in vote share down to 19.7% has coincided with your rise in the party ranks.

Though you too are a family run private limited political party like most other family run regional parties, but given the glorious past and great leaders of INC, the citizens of this great country India, generally expected that you would encourage internal democracy in your party and Congress functions as a very responsible opposition. By not doing so, you have irretrievably damaged & decimated your party, your actions and conduct have not only made you and the congress a laughing stock, you also have greatly hurt the cause of parliamentary democracy by bowing out and vacating the space of a responsible opposition.

I wish you good health, happiness and lots of wisdom.

Your faithfully,

Om Pathak

A citizen