While continuing his attack on Modi government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that three month long nationwide lockdown imposed by the government was not an attack on the COVID-19, but on poor of India.
In the fourth episode of his video messages on economy, Rahul Gandhi said: "The poor, those working in small and medium businesses, are daily wage earners. They eat with what they earn each day. When you announced a lockdown without a notice, you attacked them."
“The lockdown was not an attack on corona. The lockdown was an attack on the poor of India. It was an attack on the future of our youth. The lockdown was an attack on labourers, farmers and small shopkeepers. It was an attack on our unorganised sector. We have to understand this. We all have to stand against this attack," Gandhi said.
Gandhi reiterated his point that the lockdown did not yield results as India surpassed Brazil and became the second worst-hit nation by the pandemic. "The Prime Minister said the fight will be for 21 days, the backbone of the unorganized sector broke in 21 days," he added.
The Congress leader alleged that the government did not pay any heed on the advice of the party and when it was time to open after the lockdown, Congress party told the government several times that helping the poor was essential.
“The Prime Minister said the fight will be for 21 days, the backbone of the unorganised sector broke in 21 days. When it was time to open after the lockdown, Congress told the government several times that helping the poor is essential. A scheme like NYAY will have to be implemented, money needs to be directly deposited in bank accounts. But they didn’t do it,” Gandhi alleged.
NYAY or the Nyuntam Aay Yojana is the minimum income guarantee pitch of Congress party pushed forth in its Lok Sabha campaign last year where the party faced its second worst electoral defeat.
Earlier Rahul Gandhi in his video had questioned the GST and demonisation. Rahul Gandhi had said that the GST was the UPA's idea of easy taxation but the NDA has made it "complex and complicated".
