To revive the economy shattered by the Coronavirus, and also to make the country self-reliant, prime minister Narendra Modi today announced that his govt is bringing an economic revival package. The total amount of money that the govt plans to pump into the economy, including the measures already announced by the Reserve Bank of India and the Finance Minister, is around 20 lakh crore, which will be around 10% of the total GDP of the country, the PM informed.
But the Congress party, which thinks that being an opposition party means it has to oppose every decision taken by the Modi govt, declared that it is not enough. The Madhya Pradesh Congress posted a tweet after the announcement by the PM saying that ‘only’ Rs 20 lakh is not enough.
They claimed that the Coronavirus pandemic has devoured everything, hence, not 10% of the GDP, but the PM should give away at least 50% of the GDP.
While the Madhya Pradesh Congress thinks that 10% of the GDP is not enough to revive the economy, the same party was actually demanding half the amount for the purpose just a month ago. In the second week of April, the Congress party had said that the govt should announce an economic package which should be worth at least 5-6% of the GDP.
Addressing a press conference via video, party spokesperson Anand Sharma had said, “These are extraordinary times and it required extra-ordinary actions. That is why the prime minister should be bold and declare an economic package to help revive various sectors of the economy post lockdown”. After that, he had added, “We expect that the economic package should be at least five-six per cent of India’s GDP”.
The package today announce by Modi is also much more than what former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had was would be enough to help the poor to come out of the crisis caused by the lockdown. He had said that Rs 65000 crore is required to help the poor. In an interaction with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, when Gandhi had asked how much money is needed to help the poor, Rajan had answered, “Approximately 65,000 crores. Our GDP is 200 lakh crores, and out of that 65,000 crore is not a huge amount. So, we can do it”. Later on, Rahul Gandhi had repeated the same amount in his messages.
Therefore, what the PM Modi today announced is actually the twice the amount that the Congress party had thought that would be enough to restart the economy, and much more than what Raghuram Rajan had said will be needed to help the poor. But when PM Narendra Modi announced a package worth more than what Congress had demanded, they say it is not enough and now make a new demand that the package should be 50% of the GDP.
