Demands direct cash for poor, migrant labourers and small and medium businesses.
Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Coming down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lockdown strategy, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said that government has failed at all the four stages.
He said that India was the only country that was opening up when the Covid infection was rising ‘exponentially’.
“We are the only country in the world where the virus is rising exponentially and we are removing a lockdown. So, it is pretty clear that the aim and the purpose of the lockdown has failed,” he stated.
The four-stage lockdown failed to produce the result that the Prime Minister had expected. He urged “Mr Modi to once again to come on the front foot instead being low key”.
Speaking at a virtual press conference, he cautioned the government of ‘devastation and a second wave of infection if it opens up haphazardly’ and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spell out his government’s plan B.
He reiterated Congress’s demand to go in for direct cash injection to help poor families, migrant labourers and small and medium businesses. Not doing so would be ‘fatal’ for the economy, he said.
“We want to ask the government what is their strategy as far as India’s opening up is concerned and what are the precautions they are going to take to curb the disease now? How are they going to support the migrants, State governments and the small and medium businesses” he observed.
Mr. Gandhi said the Congress-ruled States were offering direct cash to farmers and labourers but they were not getting any support from the Centre and the Rs 20-lakh crore package was actually merely ‘one per cent of India’s GDP’.
“The Central government must infuse cash into the hands of people and it will be fatal if they do not do it. A dangerous situation will arise if financial support to people and industry is not provided”, he stated.
On a reported comment by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that other States would now have to seek his government’s permission if they wanted to employ labour from U.P., he said, “These people are not his personal property or the property of U.P. They are Indian citizens and have a right to decide what they want to do”.
“I think it’s unfortunate. I think people are first Indian and then they belong to their states. The decision on whether somebody goes to work from Uttar Pradesh to the rest of the country is not the chief minister’s. It is of the people of India and the people of Uttar Pradesh,” Gandhi told a news conference held via video conference.
Interacting with the media at a webinar organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) publication Organiser on Sunday, Adityanath had said other states will have to seek permission from his government before hiring workers from Uttar Pradesh.
“If any state wants manpower, the state government will have to guarantee social security and insurance of the workers. Without our permission they will not be able to take our people…because of the way they were treated in some states,” he had said.
Escape from responsibility in Maharashtra
Asked about the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, where the Congress is a partner in the government, he said a State that had multiple connectivity was likely to see a high growth rate in COVID-19 cases.
“We are supporting the Maharashtra government but we are not a key decision-maker here. There is a difference between running a government and supporting a government… Maharashtra is one of the most important assets that India has; it is the centre of business. It needs full support from the Government of India, as it is fighting a very difficult battle,” he said.
Responding to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comment that his interaction with migrant workers was dramabaazi (theatrics), Mr. Gandhi said,“That’s her view…If they allow me, I can walk down to U.P. and help migrants on the way”.
On border tensions with China and Nepal, he urged the Union government to be transparent on what is happening in Ladakh and Nepal but refrained from commenting.