Rahul Gandhi onWednesday took a swipe at the Modi government’s Unlock 1 move, a three-phaseplan aimed at lifting stringent restrictions imposed over two months ago tostop the spread of the coronavirus, by drawing attention to how it has‘unlocked’ the petrol and diesel prices and resulted in a sharp increase in thecoronavirus caseload.

“The Modi governmenthas “unlocked” the Corona epidemic and petrol-diesel prices,” tweeted Gandhithis morning, with a graph chart detailing the northward spike in both Covid-19cases and the fuel prices. Some commentators are of the view that India wentinto lockdown early. Other countries, they say, lifted their lockdown whentheir disease curve had started to deflate, but here the restrictions are beingeased as the curve is going up exponentially.

Earlier today, thecountry reported 15,968 fresh cases of the coronavirus disease and 465 deaths,in the highest single-day jump so far, taking the infection tally to 456,183,the Union health ministry data showed. The country has seen record rise in casesover the past week. In another development, the price of diesel was hiked forthe 18th day in a row today, making it costlier than petrol in Delhi. On eachof the 17 days leading up to Wednesday, both petrol and diesel had becomecostlier, but only diesel prices were hiked today.The Congress leader, who hasbeen attacking the Centre over the China standoff, today changed tracks andshone a light on the spiralling Covid-19 cases in the country and the steadyrise in fuel prices.

Through a graph, titled‘Coronavirus is not the only rising curve’, Gandhi tried to show how diesel andpetrol prices as well as daily Covid cases have seen a steady climb since June1, when the Unlock phase 1 began.Explaining the Covid-19 numbers, the healthministry, citing a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), said onTuesday that India has one of the lowest deaths per lakh population in theworld. It said India’s cases of death per lakh population is 1.00 while theglobal average is more than its six times, at 6.04.Most of India’s Covid-19cases come from Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, which have seen asteady rise in the number of infections and deaths.

The increase in fuelrates started on June 7 this year as oil companies resumed daily revision inprices in line with costs after ending an 82-day gap during the Covid-19lockdown. It has taken diesel prices to fresh highs and petrol price too is ata two-year high.

The government hasbeen facing Opposition’s ire over the daily increase in fuel prices. TheCongress said on Tuesday that it will launch a ‘Jan Andolan’ (people’smovement) across the country soon against the hike.The Trinamool Congress saidit is “disgraceful to unleash a planned disaster” on the common people at atime when the country is in the throes of a pandemic.