Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to Indians to cut fuel consumption and work from home has sparked a fierce political controversy and a sharp stock market fall.
The PM's call, made on Sunday, came as India faces rising crude oil prices and disruptions to global supply chains, but critics pointed out the stark contrast between his message of austerity and his own packed schedule of roadshows and convoys.
Modi had asked citizens to reduce petrol and diesel consumption, use metro services and carpool, shift to electric vehicles, work from home, postpone foreign travel, and avoid gold purchases for up to a year.
However, within hours of his speech, videos circulated of Modi leading a roadshow in Jamnagar, Gujarat, in an armoured SUV, surrounded by a convoy of dozens of vehicles.
The scene arrived just two hours after his Hyderabad address, noted critics on social media.
Modi had conducted three roadshows in 12 hours, and five in total in the five days prior to his speech, including in Patna and Kolkata.
Senior columnist and former Rajya Sabha MP Mrinal Pande asked whether the vehicles in Modi's convoy were “running on cow urine or sugarcane juice”.
Opposition leaders were swift in their attacks, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi writing on social media, “These are not words of counsel; they are proofs of failure.”
Congress comms incharge Jairam Ramesh read PM Modi's speech as a signal of worse to come, saying a phase of stringent cost-cutting measures, including a hike in fuel prices, may be on the horizon.
The stock market delivered its own verdict, with the BSE Sensex tumbling over 1,300 points on Monday, its steepest single-day fall since March.
