New Delhi, March 14 (IANS) Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, on Saturday, launched a scathing attack on the Congress for adopting gimmickry and using old images of people waiting in LPG booking queues in its desperation to fuel panic amid the global fuel crisis caused by the Iran conflict.

“Congress used a 2011 photo to run a false propaganda,” Rijiju said in a post on social media platform X, trying to expose the Congress bid to pass-off a 2011 photo of people waiting in LPG cylinder booking queue as a latest one.

Accusing the grand old party of using fake information to project the Union government in bad light, the Union Minister said, “Congress Party should not brazenly insult itself.”

He shared an image used on a Congress social media post that used the old picture of people waiting in queues with LPG cylinders, juxtaposing it with the 2011 digital article in which the photo of the “long LPG booking queue” was used.

Reassuring people against any deterioration in supplies of LPG or fuels, Union Minister Rijiju wrote, “Now our country is being led under the guidance of the very strong and visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji.”

Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson and party’s National IT Cell Incharge, Amit Malviya, shared a list of G20 nations and their respective petrol price hikes following the Iran conflict.

The list indicated that in India there has been no change in petrol prices whereas the highest increase of 22 per cent has been recorded in the US as compared to prices on February 1 and March 12, 2026.

Highlighting PM Modi’s achievement in handling fuel supplies during the conflict, Malviya indicated that only Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are the other countries where there has been no hike in petrol prices in the wake of the Gulf developments.

Malviya’s list also indicated that in Russia, the petrol prices have marginally gone down since February 1.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of External Affairs reiterated India’s call for de-escalation in the ongoing regional conflict while assuring that adequate supplies of crude oil, petrol, diesel and LPG are available in the country.

The Union government also said efforts are underway to safeguard maritime operations and repatriate Indian seafarers from the affected region.

–IANS

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