Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Slamming Narendra Modi government over the steep railway hike, Congress accused it of "double speak" (double speak sarkar) and demanded immediate rollback of the fare and freight revision.
"Ab ki bar Double Speak Sarkar.... Modi wrote a letter to PM in 2012 on the Rail fare hike ! ACHHE DIN AA GAYE !," Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said on Twitter.
Ab ki bar Double Speak Sarkar
https://t.co/TfLUSC7ITp - Modi wrote a letter to PM in 2012 on the Rail fare hike ! ACHHE DIN AA GAYE !
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) June 20, 2014
His tweet also gave a link to Modi`s twitter account on which he had said on March 7, 2012 "Just before Rail Budget UPA has suddenly increased railway freight rates bypassing Parliament. Wrote to PM against this..."
Seeking immediate rollback of the rail hike, AICC Communication Department chairman Ajay Maken said the "gift" by the Modi government is putting an additional burden on the shoulders of the middle-class, lower-middle class and the poor.
Terming it as the "biggest hike in history", Maken also took potshots at Modi`s campaign slogan of "good days are going to come".
Maken also read out a portion of the letter Modi had written to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In the letter Modi had said, "the decision also reflects huge communication gap between the Ministries of Railway, Energy, Coal and Environment. This is despite the Prime Minister constituting a high-level committee for coordination."
Latching on to it, Maken asked "I want to ask if this lack of coordination that he wrote about is still there? While in opposition, he said something else and now in power he is doing the opposite".
In a pre-budget move, railways had today effected a steep across-the-board hike of 14.2 per cent in passenger fares in all classes and a 6.5 per cent increase in freight rates.
With agency inputs
