PM Modi weakened all pro-poor schemes: Rahul Gandhi

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of opposing and weakening all schemes that helped the poor, and said his party's newly launched Nyay income guarantee scheme is not a free gift but justice for them.

Addressing the Jan Sankalp Rally here, Gandhi said the Prime Minister failed to understand the aim and objective of the Congress government's aspirational Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

"Modi made a joke of MGNREGA and called it a scheme for digging pits. But he did not realise that the scheme brought 14 crore people out of the poverty," said Gandhi.

"PM Modi failed to understand that there was a complex thought behind the inception of MGNREGA. People were paid for the labour they put in to build ponds, wells and canals, etc, in their villages.

"The engine of the economy started with the scheme as it created demand by putting money into the hands of the poor. Modi failed to understand that till the time money is not given to the poor to purchase essentials, factories in Hindustan will not run," he said.

"Till the time the poor don't earn money and the money doesn't reach villages, there will be no development," he said. Instead Modi brought demonetisation and the Gabbar Singh Tax (GST), which took out money from people's pockets, Gandhi said.

Income Tax officials were set after small traders. Today, the small traders are not doing any business, but just filling GST forms through the day, he added.

--IANS

arc/rtp/pcj