The costs of the NYAY minimum income guarantee scheme would not be borne by the Indian middle class but would come from the pockets of the top industrialists who owe money to the country, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Monday.

Addressing a rally in Bah in rural Agra, Mr. Gandhi pitched NYAY [Nyuntam Aay Yojana] as the practical alternative to the BJP’s rhetoric that ₹15 lakh would be deposited in each account if all the black money stashed abroad was retrieved. Mr. Gandhi said the idea behind NYAY developed out of the rhetoric on ₹15 lakh.

‘Won’t raise income tax’

Tax “We speak of NYAY scheme. Narendra Modiji asks, where will the money come from. He says it will come from the middle class. I want to tell you that it won’t come from the middle class,” said Mr. Gandhi.

He assured the people that the Congress would not increase income tax rates. “[The money for NYAY] will come from the pockets of Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi and go to your pockets,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi flagged off a NYAY Yatra mini-bus to publicise the scheme in the crucial State.

The Congress president said the Modi government’s promises of providing jobs to two crore youth every year, waiving farm loans and depositing ₹15 lakh in the bank account of every citizen of the country, had turned out to be “lies.”

He said the Congress would offer practical solutions to the three issues. “I won’t lie here. I won’t tell you that we will deposit ₹15 lakh in every bank account. I will speak the truth...we will deposit ₹3.60 lakh,” Mr. Gandhi said.

The Congress has promised that if voted to power it would deposit ₹72,000 per year (₹3.60 lakh in five years) into the accounts of the poorest people as part of its minimum income guarantee programme. The scheme could benefit 25 crore people, as per Mr. Gandhi.

Mr. Gandhi said the money for Mr. Modi’s publicity came from people’s money stolen by the Prime Minister and handed over to ‘thieves’ including Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, and Anil Ambani.

Mr. Gandhi said while the ruling party had promised two crore jobs every year, 23 lakh government jobs were vacant and unemployment was at an all-time high. The vacant posts would be filled in one year if the Congress came to power, he said.

Reaching out to the agrarian community in U.P.’s potato belt, Mr. Gandhi said after the 2019 Lok Sabha election, no farmer would go to jail for failing to repay debt. That farmers could be imprisoned for failing to repay nominal sums but industrialists owing the government crores were scot-free indicated the BJP government's attempts to create two Indias, said Mr. Gandhi.

If the government was waiving off loans of top industrialists, it would also have to waive off farm loans, the Congress president stressed, reaching out to the agrarian community in U.P.’s potato belt.

Bah is in Fatehpur Sikri Lok Sabha constituency, where Raj Babbar is the Congress’ candidate, and is scheduled to vote on April 18.

'Two Indias'

Mr. Gandhi also promised farmers that after the 2019 Lok Sabha election, no farmer would go to jail for failing to repay debt. That farmers could be put behind bars for failing to re-pay debts of nominal sums of ₹30,000 but industrialists owing the government crores of rupees were scot-free, indicated the BJP government's attempts to create two Indias, said Mr. Gandhi.

In one India, top industrialists have access to elite private universities and healthcare services, but common people struggled to even send their children to college, the Congress president said.

Mr. Gandhi’s sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also adddressed the rally and took on the BJP government for silencing those who raised questions by slapping sedition and NSA cases against them.

She dared the BJP that if it was as nationalist as it claimed, it should stop talking about Pakistan and address the issues of the youth in India.