Sudden lockdown was a death sentence for unorganised class: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the sudden lockdown that was induced in the wake of coronavirus crisis has proved to be a death sentence for the unorganised class.

"The sudden lockdown proved to be a death sentence for the unorganised class. The promise was to end the corona in 21 days, but finished crores of jobs and small industries," the Congress leader said in a tweet.

He also termed the lockdown imposed by the Central government as anti-people.

The Congress leader, in the fourth video of his new series titled "How the Modi government has destroyed Indian economy", said that the poor need to be assisted with monetary handouts on the lines of the Congress's proposed NYAY scheme.

"The poor population employed in the unorganised sector depends on daily income. The government attacked them with the coronavirus-induced lockdown," he said.

"Congress party always said that every poor person has to be assisted in monetary terms on the lines of the NYAY scheme. The government did not do that. The government decided to forgo the taxes on a few rich people instead," he added.

In the first video of the series, released on August 31, the former Congress chief alleged that the NDA government has been attacking the informal sector over the past 6 years and asserted that the aim of demonetisation, "wrong" Goods and Services Tax (GST) and lockdown is to destroy this sector. The Congress leader has been criticising the Centre's economic policies and handling of the COVID-19 situation in a series of videos over the past few days.

Earlier on September 7, he had hit out at the Central government alleging privatisation of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) is linked to unemployment in the country.

"Today, the country is facing many disasters like the Modi government, one of which is unnecessary privatisation. The youth want jobs but the Modi government is destroying employment and deposit capital by privatising PSUs. For whom benefit? Just for the development of a few 'friends' who are Modi Ji's special. Stop Privatisation Save Govt Jobs," he had tweeted.