PM has no words now on rupee depreciation but let us remind him about 2013: Ramesh

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday attacked the government over depreciation in the value of the rupee against the US dollar and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has nothing to say now even though he had resorted to personal attacks against former prime minister Manmohan Singh when the Indian currency had fallen during the UPA term.

AICC general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh also recalled the words of Modi in 2013 when he had claimed that UPA leadership has become directionless and are neither worried about the country's defence nor the value of its currency, but are "only worried about saving their chair".

"The then-biological CM of Gujarat had run a loud campaign against the depreciation of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar in 2014 even resorting to personal attacks on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to score political points. On 16 May, 2014, the rupee closed at Rs 58.58 per USD.

"Ten years later, the rupee has touched an all time-low of 85.27 per USD. The INR has achieved the distinction of being the worst-performing currency in Asia," the Congress general secretary said in a post on X.

"Remember all of this depreciation is despite the Government and RBI's de facto currency peg - as the Prime Minister's former Chief Economic Advisor has pointed out in recent weeks. The RBI has used billions of dollars of our foreign exchange reserves to stabilise the rupee, to no effect. How many billions have been used?" Ramesh asked.

"The non-biological Prime Minister has no words now but let us remind him of his words from 2013 - 'Crises come, but if during a crisis if the leadership is directionless, hopeless, then the crisis becomes very grave… It is our country’s misfortune that the rulers in Delhi are neither worried about the country’s defence nor about the falling value of the rupee…If they are worried, it is only about saving their chair'," the Congress leader said in his post.

The rupee dropped 4 paise to 85.52 (provisional) against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, as dollar demand from importers, foreign fund outflows and a muted trend in domestic equities dented investor sentiments.

Forex traders said the rupee witnessed heavy volatility on Friday as well on Monday amid significant dollar demand linked to the expiry of December currency futures and maturing positions in the outstanding forwards.

On Friday, the rupee registered the steepest fall in almost two years to hit its lifetime intra-day low of 85.80 before a likely central bank intervention helped recover some of its losses and settled 21 paise lower at a record low of 85.48 against the US dollar.