Terming the Congress’s austerity drive a hogwash, the BJP said the party was simply trying to deflect attention from galloping prices.
“What is needed is real work on the ground to address the sufferings of the common man. Tokenism bereft of real work is hypocrisy and laughable,” BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
“We need to know what is the cost of Sonia Gandhi’s austerity?” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked, referring to her economy flight to Mumbai. Two rows in the economy class and two in the business were cleared for security reasons on that flight. On Rahul’s train journey, Rudy said there were several important people who travelled by Shatabdi “but it seems the Nehru-Gandhi family has never done it, so it makes big news”.
Rudy alleged it was an old Congress practice “to hijack the pain and misery of the nation for political ends”. “A compulsory austerity has been imposed due to skyrocketing prices,” he said.
Taking a dig at former NDA ally Mamta Banerjee, Rudy said “when a senior cabinet colleague misses cabinet meetings more than half a dozen times, while files pile up in her office or are at times rushed with special messengers by air or train, the state incurs unnecessary expenditures.
Hence, he said, it would be prudent for the UPA to look in its backyard.
