"Minister more interested in Pluto, Uranus": Congress slams Sitharaman

New Delhi: The Congress slammed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, saying that she is rather interested in Uranus and Pluto than shoring the country's economy to recover. The opposition party was referring to Sitharaman tweeting pictures unveiled by NASA from its new powerful space telescope, PTI reported.

"She has an interest in Pluto, Jupiter and Uranus. Unfortunately, our finance minister is showing the way to Pluto, Uranus and Jupiter and is unable to show the way forward to our economy," Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh told reporters.

He lashed out at the Union minister that she was busy tweeting pictures from NASA's Webb telescope instead of explaining to the country how she planned to rein in inflationary trends. His remarks come a day after the government released its inflation data.

When the finance minister is expected to come up with plans to tackle inflation, she is occupied with different priorities; he hit hard.

Vallabh further accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of polarising society and creating disharmony when tackling rising inflation, unemployment and depreciating Rupee, which are the issues that needed consideration.

"It has become very evident in the last eight years where the focus of the BJP government has been. Polarisation and disharmony have taken a front seat, whereas distressing issues such as rising inflation, unemployment and depreciating Rupee are nowhere on its agenda. The country witnessed the highest unemployment in the last 45 years," Vallabh alleged.

He said that the BJP government had brought a "doom with 7s" and explained that retail inflation stands at 7.01 per cent, unemployment at 7.8 per cent and the Rupee depreciated 7 per cent in the last six months vs the US Dollar. "While these are worrying data points, the BJP government is in deep slumber," he alleged.

He asked, "What has the government done to bring relief to the common Indian as far as inflation is concerned," and added that increasing GST on essentials like flour would only boost inflation further.

He questioned why the Modi government is completely silent on the issue of tackling a barrage of macroeconomic indicators going wrong.

While RBI projects 7.4 per cent inflation for the next quarter, Vallabh asked what the government has in mind for that.

"Any government can bring relief to the common mass only when sympathy leads over apathy. The ED and CBI are not tools that bring relief. Unless the BJP government moves beyond petty politics and starts looking beyond ED politics, common Indians will continue suffering," he said.