The Congress on Wednesday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over escalating inflation rates, particularly for tomatoes, onions, and potatoes (TOP), accusing his policies of failing to control food prices and pushing essential items out of reach for the poor.
Taking to his official handle on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh shared a video of Modi discussing the importance of TOP in Indian households. Ramesh questioned Modi’s “top priority,” highlighting that prices for the staple vegetables have sharply increased, leading to a reported 42% inflation rate in the vegetable category.
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He further broke down individual rates, noting that tomato inflation hit 161.3%, potatoes 64.9%, and onions 51.8%. “Due to the failure of your policies, ‘TOP’ is disappearing from the plates of the poor,” Ramesh claimed.
On Tuesday, The Congress leader flagged concern over surging food inflation, which he noted has surpassed the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance threshold of 6%. According to Ramesh, in Mumbai, onions are now priced at up to Rs 80 per kilogram.
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“Food inflation is now surging to double digits. Vegetable prices jumped 42.18 per cent in October. Onions are now selling in places like Mumbai at prices as high as Rs 80 per kilogram. Retail inflation is now above the RBI’s tolerance ceiling of 6 per cent,” he said.
“All this is happening with sluggish consumption, lukewarm investment, stagnant real wages, and widespread unemployment. And when faced with this food price rise, the government’s impulse is only to exclude food prices from inflation measurement,” Ramesh had said in a post on X.
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October’s retail inflation rate rose to 6.21%, breaching the RBI’s upper tolerance ceiling and marking a 14-month high, according to data from the National Statistical Office (NSO). In contrast, inflation stood at 5.49% in September and 4.87% in October 2023.
The NSO also noted declines in the prices of pulses, eggs, sugar, and spices, but stated that high food inflation was driven by increased prices for vegetables, fruits, and oils.