NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at Narendra Modi over the rupee breaching the historic low of 70-mark against the US dollar today, saying it has given the 'supreme leader' a vote of "no confidence", while his Congress party said it was the prime minister's Independence Day gift to the nation.
In his Twitter barb, Gandhi also tagged an old video of Modi attacking the then UPA government over the falling rupee.
Modi was then the Gujarat chief minister and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 parliamentary election.
"The Indian Rupee just gave the Supreme Leader, a vote of NO confidence, crashing to a historic low. Listen to the Supreme Leader's master class on economics in this video, where he explains why the Rupee is tanking," he said on Twitter.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the 'Modinomics' has wreaked havoc on India's economy and left it in dire straits.
He demanded that the prime minister make a statement on the steps being taken by his government to check the slide in the country's economy and give a boost to it.
"The rupee is now trading at an historic low. The Modi government has surely sent the rupee to the 'Margdarshak Mandal'. What the Congress party could not achieve in 60 years, Modi and his careless economic policies have achieved in 60 months," he told reporters.
He was referring to the BJP 'Margdarshak Mandal' of elderly leaders including L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
The Congress leader said the falling rupee is the stark symbol of abject failures and economic mismanagement of the Modi government.
"Modi-made disaster of demonetisation, implementation of a flawed GST, tax terrorism, low growth, low investment, no jobs and now rising inflation are the myopic, ad hoc economic policies that have become the identity of the Modi government," he said.
"We express our serious concern and hope that Prime Minister Modi will now make a comprehensive statement on the urgent and immediate steps that the Government is going to take to ensure that we are able to overcome this crisis," he said.
Surjewala said the rupee has lost almost 10 per cent of its value in 2018 itself and has become Asia's weakest currency under the Modi government.
He said while many currencies of Asian nations have appreciated during the same period, the rupee has lost its shine.
Surjewala said while the Modi government is busy blaming "global factors" for the falling rupee, it is worth recalling that during the global financial crises of 2008, the previous Congress-led UPA government had managed the economy despite global pressures.
The rupee crashed below the 70-mark in early trade to touch an all-time low of 70.10 against US dollar, a day after bloodletting in global markets due to worries over Turkish economic crisis and a sharp plunge in the lira.
Attributing the fall in rupee value against the US dollar to "external factors", Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said today that there was nothing to worry about as long as the depreciation was in line with other currencies.