Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the central government and alleged that the sudden lockdown in the name of COVID-19 was an attack on the unorganised sector.
“The third attack on the unorganised sector was done in the name of Corona. The poor, those working in small and medium businesses, are daily wage earners. They eat with what they earn each day. When you announced a lockdown without a notice, you attacked them. The Prime Minister said the fight will be for 21 days, the backbone of the unorganized sector broke in 21 days,” Rahul said in a video message on the microblogging site.
“When it was time to open after the lockdown, Congress party told the government several times that helping the poor is essential. A scheme like NYAY will have to be implemented, money needs to be directly deposited in bank accounts. But they didn’t do it,” Rahul said.
Rahul further said, “We suggested that for small and medium businesses, you should prepare a package. They need to be saved. Without this money they will not be able to survive, but the government did nothing. Instead, the government waived off taxes worth lakhs of crores of the richest fifteen-twenty people.”
“The lockdown was not an attack on corona. The lockdown was an attack on the poor of India. It was an attack on the future of our youth. The lockdown was an attack on labourers, farmers and small shopkeepers. It was an attack on our unorganised sector. We have to understand this. We all have to stand against this attack, Rahul added.”
Rahul Gandhi has been attacking the Modi government over various issues including demonetization, GST, lockdown.
On September 7, Rahul attacked the central government and alleged that privatisation of Public sector undertakings (PSU) is destroying employment. On September 6, he targeted the Modi government’s GST and termed it as an economic apocalypse for the nation. Whereas on September 3, he said that demonetisation was an attack on India’s poor, its farmers, labourers and small shopkeepers and claimed that the decision of demonetisation by the central government was an attack on India’s unorganized economy.
