Web Desk, 28 July:
Rahul Gandhi led his party's attack on the government in parliament today, accusing it of insensitivity to how spiraling inflation is impacting the common man.
Reciting a list of prices that pulses and vegetables are retailing at, Mr Gandhi, who frequently referred to notes during his speech, said the crisis caused by a shortage of lentils is based in corruption.
Mr Gandhi chided Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to safeguard the interests of the poor. "You said you wanted to be the people's chowkidaar," he said. "It has been left to the Congress to serve as chowkidaar," he alleged, citing the PM's attempts to "snatch" farmers' land with a controversial proposal on acquiring farming land for industry that was shelved by the government after wide political opposition.
Mr Gandhi, 46, is not a frequent speaker in parliament. In 2014 and then again last week, he was filmed in what seemed to be a nap (on both occasions, his party has suggested that it was a case of eyes wide shut and that he was listening intently to the debate).
Recently, Mr Gandhi has exhibited punchier riposte than he was known for, encouraging his party to claim that he is a more confident and intuitive politician than before.
Playing on the heavily-monogrammed suit that PM Modi infamously wore for a meeting with President Obama, Mr Gandhi coined the term "suit-boot government" to accuse the ruling BJP of favouring the interests of rich industrialists over the country's poor. In March, he mocked a scheme to encourage tax defaulters to disclose hidden wealth as "Fair and Lovely", alleging that like the skin-lightening cream, the policy made undeliverable promises to turn black money into white.
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