Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced on Monday, 28 January, that his party would ensure a Minimum Income Guarantee for every poor in the country if it returns to power after the Lok Sabha polls due in April-May.
“The Congress has decided to take a historic decision... The Congress-led government is going to give Minimum Income Guarantee. This means, each poor person in India will have minimum income. This means there will be no hungry, poor people in India.”Rahul Gandhi
Gandhi made the remarks at the 'Kisaan Abhaar Sammelan' held in Raipur to express gratitude to Chhattisgarh's people, particularly farmers, for voting the party to power in the state after a gap of 15 years.
‘Cannot Build a New India While Millions of Our Brothers & Sisters Suffer the Scourge of Poverty’: Rahul Tweets
He also tweeted, “We cannot build a new India while millions of our brothers & sisters suffer the scourge of poverty.”
What This Means
What Rahul is indicating is a kind of basic income scheme or direct cash transfer to the poor. It theoretically means abolition of all subsidies, and distribution of the amount thus saved to the needy in cash. The idea was floated by the then UPA government months before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. There are reports of the Modi government coming up with a version of the direct cash transfer and it may be announced in the forthcoming budget.
Rahul Distributed Loan Waiver Certificates to Beneficiary Farmers in Raipur
At the Raipur event, he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP of trying to create two Indias – "one of the Rafale scam, Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and the other of the poor farmers".
He also distributed loan waiver certificates to some of the beneficiary farmers during the function.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and senior Congress leader PL Punia were among those present at the event.
The Congress had posted a massive victory in last year's state Assembly polls, winning 68 of the total 90 seats.
Ahead of the Assembly polls, Gandhi had given assurances that Congress would waive farm loans if his party was voted to power in the state.
(With inputs from PTI)
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