This refers to “Lok Sabha polls: Rahul Gandhi promises Rs 6,000 a month for poorest 20%” (March 26). In 1971, when Indira Gandhi coined the slogan “garibi hatao”, the then Jan Sangh leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was quick to point out that hatao meant “to move from one place to another” and that if the Congress party really meant business, it should promise “mitao garibi”, which meant eradicating poverty. Following her return to power, Indira Gandhi did try to valiantly remove poverty by conducting loan melas through the nationalised banks, which only led to middlemen lining their own pockets.

The present announcement by Rahul Gandhi appears to be a last-ditch attempt by the grand old party to capture power by hook or by crook, by making irresponsible promises. What makes it a sad reading is the committee that has proposed this scheme includes eminent economist Dr Manmohan Singh. There is, of course, not a word about how the nation would mobilise the staggering amount of the estimated Rs 3.5 trillion per annum that would cost the exchequer. Nikita Khrushchev was spot on when he said, “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”

V Jayaraman Chennai

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