Rahul Gandhi repeated his earlier assertion that exiting the lockdown was not an event or an on-off switch.
The Government of India should not act as a sahukar (money lender) to be offering loans to citizens instead of helping them with direct cash transfer, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday and appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rethink his economic stimulus package.
Interacting with journalists of regional media via video conferencing, Mr Gandhi said as an Opposition leader trying to pressure on the government to directly transfer money into people’s hands and warned that an ‘economic storm’ was on its way.
Repeating his earlier assertion that exiting the lockdown was not an event or an on-off switch, the Congress leader said the government must get out it ‘intelligently’ that protects both India’s economy as well as the vulnerable sections.
“I don’t want to make a political statement but I have a serious reservation about the nature of the package that the Government has given and I would like the Government to reconsider,” Mr Gandhi said.
“I would like to appeal to the Government of India that you can surely offer loans but Mother India cannot act like a sahukar (money lender) to her children. Mother India should directly transfer money into the hands of her children. 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,” he added.
Mr Gandhi, who had conceived the nyuntam aay yoana [NYAY] or minimum income guarantee before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, once pitched for it to be used to hep the poor.
“Do NYAY temporarily if you don’t want to do it permanently. But please start putting money into the small businesses, farmers, migrants’ bank accounts because if we do not then we will have a catastrophic result,” he said, adding it would cost the government ₹65,000-70,000 crores.
The Congress leader said though they have suggested doubling of work days to 200 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), for migrant workers in urban workers only a monthly cash transfer of ₹7,500 can help.
It is heartbreaking to see millions of people walking on the highways without food and water, Mr Gandhi added and offered condolences to numerous tragedies migrant labourers have faced.
“This is a challenging problem and I don’t want to resort to finger pointing. I want to say we have to all help the people who are walking on the streets. The situation is that the BJP is in government and they have the tools. So, they have a bigger responsibility. It’s also our duty as we are in the Opposition. All of us jointly have to help them,” Mr Gandhi said.
Senior Congress Ahmed Patel, however, directly attacked the Centre over the migrants issue. “Migrant crisis is now as big as corona pandemic itself. Govt cannot be a bystander as poor either go hungry or lose their lives in accidents. Speeches are not a solution. ₹1000 cr of PM care funds must reach their hands. If need be govt must use Army to help migrants reach safely,” Mr Patel tweeted.
With inputs from The Hindu