Lok Sabha elections 2019| ‘Can’t give 15 lakh, promise ₹72,000’: Rahul Gandhi pitches income scheme

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday made a strong pitch for the minimum income guarantee scheme for the poor that he has promised to implement if the party is voted to power in the Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing a public rally in Haryana’s Kurukshetra, Gandhi compared the Congress’s poll promise of providing cash support to the poor with ‘ ₹15 lakh in bank accounts promise’, which he said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made going into 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

“Narendra Modi spoke about giving ₹15 lakh. He lied. I don’t lie. I asked the Congress think tank to come up with a plan about how much money we can deposit in the bank accounts of the poor,” Gandhi said adding, “If you want to hear lies, go to Modiji. We can’t give you ₹15 lakh but we can give ₹72,000 to the poor of India.”

Gandhi was pointing to PM Modi’s election speech in 2014 as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate when he had said that if all the black money stashed in foreign banks is brought back to the country, every poor may get ₹15 lakh in their bank accounts.

The Congress president said, “Giving ₹15 lakh is not possible but the Congress party will deposit ₹3.60 lakh in five years to the bank accounts of the 20 per cent poorest Indians.”

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Earlier this week, Gandhi announced that if the Congress is voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in April-May, the party will implement the minimum income guarantee scheme for the poorest 5 crore families of the country.

The Congress has said the scheme, if implemented, will benefit 25 crore individuals, whose family income is less than ₹12,000 a month. The party has named it NYAY (standing for Nyuntam Aay Yojana) meaning justice.

The Congress’s poll promise has come under sharp criticism from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which dismissed it as unworkable election promise. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called it “bluff announcement” in a blog.

But Gandhi has claimed that the BJP is criticising the Congress over the minimum income guarantee scheme as the poll promise has “shaken” the ruling party.