In his concluding video on the state of Indian economy senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that an unplanned lockdown was the third attack on the informal economy of the country.
After terming Demonetisation, faulty GST implementation and lockdown as systematic attacks on the unorganised sector, the Congress leader went on to release three separate videos on each of the government policies explaining how they shook up the foundation of the informal economy, one after another.
In the last video of the series which was released on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi said that the decision of imposing lockdown without any prior notice amounts to attack on the poor of the country, who depend on their daily income for survival. The sudden lockdown for 21 days was a disaster plan which instead of curbing the spread of Coronavirus turned out to be the “death sentence for the unorganised sector”, he said.
“The Prime Minister said that it will be a 21-day fight. But it crippled the backbone of the unorganised sector”, Rahul added.
Rahul said that the Congress party has repeatedly demanded that the poor have to be monetarily assisted. For this, policies, such as the NYAY– the scheme was part of the Congress party’s 2019 election manifesto which had promised a Minimum Income Guarantee Scheme’ of six thousand per month to 5 crore poorest families–will have to be implemented so that direct cash transfer in the accounts of poor and needy can be ensured.
He added that Congress suggested preparing a package for small and medium businesses but the government did nothing.
In contrast, the government offered tax benefits worth lakhs of crore to the 15 to 20 richest people of the country, Rahul alleged.
Lockdown was not an attack on Coronavirus, rather it was an attack on the poor along with the future of youths. Lockdown was an attack on the labourers, farmers and small businessmen, Rahul stressed in his concluding remark.
–With inputs from The Indian Express
