'TOP' vanishing from plates of poor due to failure of PM Modi's policies: Cong

The Congress on Wednesday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the high inflation rate of tomatoes, onions and potatoes, saying 'TOP' is disappearing from the plates of the poor owing to the "failure" of his policies.

Congress MP and general-secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh shared an old video of Modi on X, in which he is heard talking about the importance of 'TOP' — tomatoes, onions and potatoes — in Indian households.

"What kind of top priority is this, prime minister? The prices of the things that you said would be given top priority are skyrocketing. Because of this, the inflation rate of vegetables has reached 42%. The inflation rate of tomatoes is 161.3%, of potatoes 64.9% and onion 51.8%," Ramesh wrote in the post in Hindi on X. "Owing to the failure of your policies, 'TOP' is disappearing from the plates of the poor."

The Congress leader had expressed concern on Tuesday over the high inflation due to food prices rising beyond the RBI's tolerance level and took a dig at the government, saying in such a situation, all it could do was exclude food prices from inflation measurement.

"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 kg. Retail inflation is now above the RBI's tolerance ceiling of 6 per cent.

"All this is happening alongside 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.

Retail inflation breached the Reserve Bank of India's upper tolerance level, soaring to a 14-month high of 6.21 per cent in October mainly on account of rising food prices.

Inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) was 5.49 per cent in September and 4.87 per cent in the year-ago month.

The NSO (National Statistical Office) data showed that a significant decline in inflation was observed in the 'pulses and products', eggs, 'sugar and confectionery' and spices subgroups during October 2024.

"High food inflation in October 2024 is mainly owing to increase in inflation of vegetables, fruits and oils and fats," the NSO said.