'Atmanirbhar package' a farce, Rahul Gandhi's NYAY scheme could be 'game changer': Adhir

Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slammed the NDA government's pandemic-related economic package as a "farce and cruel joke" on the sufferings of crores of people on Thursday and said Rahul Gandhi's proposed NYAY scheme could be a "game changer" in the situation.

Chowdhury, the five-time MP from West Bengal's Berhampore Lok Sabha seat, hit out at the Centre for spending Rs 3,000 crore on building a statue (the Statue of Unity in Gujarat), but failing to address the problems of scores of people who have lost jobs in the coronavirus-induced lockdown and are reeling under distress.

"Atmanirbhar' Package 'of 20 lacs crores does not find any tangible financial space for inventing corona vaccine. Out of PM CARES a paltry sum of 100 cr has been earmarked for corona vaccine, 'Unth ki muh pe jeera' jaisa (a drop in the ocean)," he said in a tweet.

The corona vaccine needs a substantial investment and the government should not be stingy about it, Chowdhury said.

Referring to the NYAY Yojna (minimum income guarantee scheme) proposed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said the scheme, if implemented in the present situation, could be a "game changer".

"The formidable weapon to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic & its ominous economic fallout could be to resort to a universal basic income approach, @RahulGandhi Ji may be liked or not by someone or the other, but his brainchild NYAY could be a game changer in this prevailing situation," Chowdhury said in another tweet.

Later, speaking to a news channel, the Congress leader termed the Centre's economic package to overcome the coronavirus blues as a farce and cruel joke on the sufferings of migrant labourers.

In a big push to revive the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a package of Rs 20 lakh crore, which includes measures already announced by the government and the RBI so far to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. The amount is nearly 10 per cent of the country's GDP.