‘Six-year BJP rule has been of immense despair and agony’

the government, the prime minister would have helped the common man with reduced fuel prices," Sibal said at an online press conference.

According to a report by Care Ratings, he said the hike effectively meant that the Central government is collecting around 270 per cent taxes on the base price of petrol and 256 per cent in case of diesel.

The former union minister said petrol was selling at Rs 71.41 in Delhi on May 1, 2014, when international crude oil prices were USD 106.85, while on June 12, 2020, the price of petrol was Rs 75.16 when the crude oil was at USD 38.

He said central excise and VAT cumulatively account for 69 per cent of tax on fuel in India which is higher than anywhere else in the world.

He said the tax of fuel in the US was 19 per cent, Japan 47 per cent, the UK 62 per cent, France 63 per cent and Germany 65 per cent.

JAIPUR: The six-year BJP rule has been of "mismanagement, immense despair and agony" and the country today stands at a stage where the common people are suffering from the wounds inflicted by the government, Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Saturday.

Addressing Congress MLAS and legislators supporting the party-led government in Rajasthan at a hotel in Kukas near here, Surjewala said politics of disorientation and false propaganda have become the hallmark of the functioning of the Modi government.

"In the beginning of the seventh year (of the Narendra Modi government), India stands at a stage where the citizens of the country are forced to suffer the countless wounds and ruthless insensitivity inflicted by the government," he charged. In his address, Surjewala

lashed out at the Modi government on various fronts, including unemployment and economic growth. He said that Modi came to power with the promise of providing two crore jobs every year but in 2017-18, India had the highest unemployment rate in the last 45 years.

After the coronavirus pandemic, India's unemployment rate has increased to 27.11 per cent.

He said that infiltration by the Chinese forces into the areas of Pangong Lake and Galwan Valley in Ladakh is a matter of concern for national security. "We will ask the prime minister to share all information about Chinese infiltration in the country and prove his promise of showing red eyes," Surjewala said, referring to the government's promise of strong stand on the issue of national security.