Rahul Gandhi said, “Our people need money. Prime Minister should reconsider this package. Modiji should think about direct cash transfer”
NEW DELHI| Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today urged the government to reconsider it’s 20 lakh crore package for the coronavirus pandemic. Gandhi also warned the government of a “catastrophic problem” if it did not, instead put money into the bank accounts of people worst affected by the outbreak and lockdown.
Talking to reporters via video conference Rahul Gandhi said “serious reservations” about what he said was a “package of loans” that did not provide immediate on-ground relief for framers and migrants.
Rahul Gandhi added, “Our people need money. Prime Minister should reconsider this package. Modiji should think about direct cash transfer, 200 working days under MNREGA, money for farmers because they are the future of India.”
The Lok Sabha MP from Kerala highlighted the NYAY scheme proposed by his party while doing campaigning for general elections last year- which offered annual income support of Rs 72,000 to the poorest sections of society and urged the government to come up with s similar plan.
Mr Gandhi said, “The migrant labourer walking on the street needs money, not debt. The farmer who is suffering needs money, not debt. If we do not, this will become a catastrophic problem”.
Rahul Gandhi’s critique of the Prime Minister’s stimulus package was echoed by this week by a family of three migrants trying to cycle over 500 km from Uttar Pradesh to their village in Chhattisgarh.
“What is there to be happy about… we did not even get ration where we were. It would have been better if they arranged for buses for us to go home,” Lakshmi Sahu, the mother, said.
Mr Gandhi also questions PM Modi earlier this week asking for direct transfer of “at least Rs 7,500” to the bank accounts of migrants left jobless by the lockdown. Earlier while talking to Mr Gandhi the Nobel Prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee also discussed the same.
Mr Banerjee said, “I would say bottom 60 per cent of the population, we give them some money, nothing bad will happen in my view”, adding that a similar practice was being followed by the United States.
The government this week announced a fiscal relief and stimulus package that had some measures for stranded and struggling migrants, including food rations and affordable housing.
But Congress stated it as “jumla” that has no direct benefits for the poor section of the society. A similar concern was raised by the opposition leader NCP Sharad Pawar and CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury.
Mr Gandhi said that unless the government ensured a significant level of demand from consumers across all economic sections, the country would struggle to recover from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, rating agency Moody’s said the impact of the outbreak would exacerbate the material slowdown in India’s economic growth, with the country expected to see 0 per cent expansion in the current fiscal year.
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