Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday targeted the Centre in Parliament for its silence on the surging inflation in India. Gandhi blamed the shortage of pulses and the subsequent price rise on corruption in the government, and accused Prime Minister Narendra of failing to safeguard the interests of the poor and fulfilling his promises, according to NDTV.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, he said, "Modiji used some beautiful words promising to control inflation. But sadly, he doesn't remember his promises now...You can lie about Startup India; you can lie about Make In India. But you cannot lie about price rise." Gandhi mentioned the cost of a number of lentils and said "Har har [hail] Modi" had now changed to "Arhar [a type of dal] Modi", India Today reported.

In defence of the National Democratic Alliance government, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit back at Gandhi, saying the Wholesale Price Index was higher during the term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance. He said there was a "policy paralysis" under the UPA government, which had left the country with "double-digit inflation".