Proofs of failure: Rahul Gandhi attacks government over PM's WFH appeal

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday echoed the concerns raised by his party and sounded the alarm over Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging Indians to work from home, avoid foreign travel, and refrain from purchasing gold as part of a list of austerity measures amid the Gulf crisis.

Reacting to the Prime Minister’s “Nation First, Duty Above Comfort” message to the nation, the senior Congress leader called Modi “compromised” amid mounting economic pressure, saying the public was being asked “to sacrifice due to government failures.”

“Yesterday, Modi ji asked the public to make sacrifices -- don’t buy gold, don’t travel abroad, use less petrol, cut down on fertiliser and edible oil, use the metro, and work from home. These are not advisories -- they are proof of failure," he tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Rahul's party MP Karti Chidambaram also questioned what the “triggers” were for the alert and called on the Modi government to convene an immediate session of Parliament to apprise the Opposition and the rest of the country about the “true state of affairs.”

“These are very serious ‘directives’ from the @PMOIndia. What are the triggers for this? The government must convene Parliament immediately, take the nation into confidence, and inform us about the true state of affairs that has necessitated these ‘appeals’,” he tweeted.

Just after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to use petroleum products carefully, the Congress lashed out at the Centre, saying that even three months into the US-Iran war, he remained unable to ensure India’s energy security.

The opposition party said it was “shameless, reckless and downright immoral” for the Prime Minister to ask people to face inconvenience instead of putting contingency measures in place to keep the economy insulated from the global crisis.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal wrote, “3 months into the Iran-US war and PM Modi is still clueless about ensuring India’s energy security.” He added, “It is shameless, reckless and downright immoral that the PM is pushing the common citizen into inconvenience, instead of building contingencies to ensure our economy is unaffected by this global crisis.”

Venugopal also said, “When elections and petty politics are the sole priority of the PM, the end result is an impending economic catastrophe.” He said the prime minister and his government must make all necessary arrangements to ensure that India has enough fuel reserves and that no citizen suffers because of a lack of planning.

His remarks came after Pm Modi said the Centre was trying to protect people from the adverse effects of the war and urged citizens to take steps to deal with the challenge and support the country.

Speaking at a rally organised by the Telangana BJP in Hyderabad, the prime minister suggested the careful use of petrol and diesel, use of metro rail services in cities, carpooling, maximum use of EVs, use of railway services for sending parcels, and working from home to save foreign exchange.

PM Modi said the war had led to a sharp rise in petrol and fertiliser prices. He said difficulties increase when the supply chain comes under pressure, despite the government taking various steps to deal with the crisis. “That’s why, during the global crisis, keeping the country above all else, we have to take resolutions,” he said.

The Prime Minister also said that methods such as work from home, virtual meetings and video conferencing, which became common during Covid, should be brought back. “We have developed work from home, virtual meetings, video conferencing and many other methods during Corona (Covid). We got habituated to it. The need of the hour is to resume those methods,” he said.

Stressing the need to conserve foreign exchange because of the West Asia crisis, PM Modi called for postponing the purchase of gold and foreign travel for one year. “We have to save foreign exchange by any means,” he said. He also urged people to cut down the use of edible oil and chemical fertilisers, and to promote natural farming and swadeshi products to save foreign exchange and make the country self-reliant.

The exchange between the Congress and the Prime Minister followed PM Modi’s call for restraint in fuel use and other savings measures during the ongoing crisis, with the opposition accusing the government of failing to prepare adequately on energy security and fuel reserves.