Income meter has stopped: Rahul Gandhi slams Modi govt after meeting auto drivers

Rahul Gandhi criticised the Modi government over inflation and the financial struggles of autorickshaw drivers, saying rising costs have crippled livelihoods. After interacting with drivers in Delhi, he promised to raise their concerns in Parliament and accused the government of ignoring their hardships

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the Modi government on Saturday over the plight of autorickshaw drivers, saying the “income meter” has ground to a halt, the “brakes on inflation have failed” and the government remains deaf.

Gandhi slammed the government while posting a video on X of his interaction with autorickshaw drivers a day earlier. “‘We have been ruined and there is no one to listen.’ An auto-rickshaw driver shared this sentiment over lunch yesterday. In that single sentence lay the entire story of millions of poor people across the country,” the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in his post in Hindi accompanying the video.

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“The income meter has ground to a halt. The brakes on inflation have failed. And the government — the very entity meant to listen — remains deaf,” Gandhi charged.

The former Congress chief said that from CNG to LPG, from children’s education to medical treatment and from milk to cooking oil — every rising rupee deals a direct blow to their budgets and their kitchens.

“Amidst this soaring inflation, Modi-ji offers a piece of advice: ‘Use public transport.’ Yet, the very people who constitute the backbone of public transport are today crumbling under the crushing weight of rising prices,” Gandhi said.

“Today, alongside the ‘roti’ and ‘dal’ on their plates, there lies a haunting question: ‘Where will tomorrow’s meal come from?'” he said.

Gandhi on Friday met a group of autorickshaw drivers at Todarmal Park in the Bengali Market area here and assured them that he would raise their issues in Parliament.

The Congress leader was seen wearing an autorickshaw driver’s uniform and taking selfies with children after the interaction. He shared food with the drivers and listened to them talk about the problems they faced in making a living amid rising costs. He later left the place in an autorickshaw.