Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to citizens to cut fuel consumption, avoid gold purchases and adopt other measures to help the country withstand global economic uncertainties amid the West Asia conflict were “proofs of failure”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday.
Addressing a rally in Hyderabad on Sunday, Modi had called for “nationally responsible” lifestyle choices and urged citizens to place “the country above all else” during the crisis. Among the measures he proposed were reviving work-from-home practices adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic, avoiding non-essential foreign travel for a year and reducing edible oil consumption.
On Monday, Gandhi said that in the last 12 years, the Modi government had brought the country to a point where citizens were being told what to buy and where to go.
“Every time, they shift the responsibility onto the people so they can escape accountability themselves,” Gandhi said. “Running the country is no longer within the reach of a compromised PM.”
मोदी जी ने कल जनता से त्याग मांगे - सोना मत ख़रीदो, विदेश मत जाओ, पेट्रोल कम जलाओ, खाद और खाने का तेल कम करो, मेट्रो में चलो, घर से काम करो।
ये उपदेश नहीं - ये नाकामी के सबूत हैं।
12 साल में देश को इस मुक़ाम पर ला दिया है कि जनता को बताना पड़ रहा है - क्या ख़रीदे, क्या न…
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 11, 2026 Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Opposition had been raising concerns about the falling value of the Indian rupee, rising fuel prices, fertiliser shortages and threats to food security since the conflict began on February 28.
He questioned why the government had remained focused on election campaigning and public events instead of addressing the concerns.
Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal concluded on May 4.
Kharge added that the country was now being “preached to” about savings while ordinary people were struggling with inflation and economic pressure.
जब “ग़रीबी में आटा गीला” हो रहा है तब मोदी जी देश को बचत करने का पाठ पढ़ा रहे हैं।
28 फ़रवरी को West Asia में जंग शुरू हुई, कांग्रेस पार्टी ने हर पहलू को highlight किया —
अर्थव्यस्था की बर्बादी,
रुपये का लगातार गिरना,
पेट्रोल-डीज़ल-LPG के दाम और क़िल्लत,
किसानों के लिए…
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) May 11, 2026 Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the prime minister’s “unexpected pleas” could indicate that the economic situation in the country was more dire than official data suggested.
“Tough austerity measures, including increase in fuel prices, may well be on their way and an environment is being created to make them more acceptable,” Ramesh added.
The Prime Minister’s unexpected pleas to the people of the country made from Hyderabad yesterday could mean the following —
1. The economic situation is far more serious than what official numbers suggest and what the PM and his colleagues have been claiming all this while.
2.…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 11, 2026 Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav described Modi’s appeal as an “admission of the BJP government’s…failure” and questioned why it came only after Assembly elections had concluded.
He said that the only real crisis facing the country was the Bharatiya Janata Party itself and questioned how the government’s ambition of building a “five trillion-dollar economy” could be achieved if citizens were being asked to accept so many restrictions.
Yadav also questioned why restrictions on fuel use and travel were being discussed only after election campaigning had ended, asking whether charter flights and rallies by BJP leaders during the polls did not consume fuel.
He said that the government’s appeals would create “fear, panic, unease and despair” in businesses and markets because of concerns about recession and inflation.
“The government’s job is to use its vast resources wisely to pull us out of emergency situations, not to spread fear or chaos,” he said.
चुनाव ख़त्म होते ही, ‘संकट’ याद आ गया!
दरअसल देश के लिए ‘संकट’ सिर्फ़ एक है और उसका नाम है : ‘भाजपा’
इतनी सारी पाबंदियां लगानी पड़ीं तो ‘पंच ट्रिलियन डॉलर की जुमलाई अर्थव्यवस्था’ कैसे बनेगी? लगता है भाजपा सरकार के हाथ से लगाम पूरी तरह छूट गयी है। डॉलर आसमान छू रहा है और देश का… pic.twitter.com/2f8utdxbLR
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) May 11, 2026 Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the situation showed a “policy failure” in handling the conflict.
“Election related decisions cannot now be dumped at the door of the citizens and asked to conserve oil and curtail travel/purchases,” she said.
Chaturvedi added that similar restraint should apply to political events and government activities, including large rallies and swearing-in ceremonies, referring to Assam Chief Minister-elect Himanta Biswa Sarma’s swearing-in ceremony scheduled for Tuesday.
Policy failure to handle the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Election related decisions cannot now be dumped at the door of the citizens and asked to conserve oil and curtail travel/purchases.
The citizens are anyway bearing the impact of this government’s chunaav focused…
— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) May 11, 2026 A day after the prime minister’s statement, stock markets slid on Monday, with Sensex and Nifty falling more than 1% each.
Benchmark Brent crude was trading at almost $105 per barrel on Monday. The price of Brent was $78 per barrel on February 27, a day before the conflict started.
Petrol in Delhi is currently priced at Rs 94.7 per litre, diesel at Rs 87.6 per litre and domestic liquified petroleum gas at Rs 913 per 14.2-kg cylinder.
Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava
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