Not even a single penny for farmers in Centre's economic package: Congress

New Delhi, May 15

The Congress, on Friday, accused the government of being “insensitive” towards farmers and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman apologise for neglecting them in the COVID-19 economic package.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the so-called Rs 20-lakh crore package for offsetting the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic had proved to be a “jumla package” and reflected the “voodoo economics” being followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

He said the government had not put a single penny in the pocket of farmers or farm labourers through the package and claimed that farmers had lost over Rs 50,000 crore this rabi season.

“One thing is absolutely clear that the so-called Rs 20-lakh crore economic package has proved to be a ‘jumla package’. It reflects the ‘voodoo’ economics’ being followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman,” Surjewala said at a press conference through video-conferencing.

The Congress leader noted that the package, which was now being declared in instalments by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, “has proved to be only 13 zeros”.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman only talked big things and indulged in headline management, but had done nothing concrete for farmers or any other section of society.

Surjewala said farmers had lost Rs 21,000 crore by distress sale of wheat far below the minimum support price (MSP) and an equal amount through other crops such as ‘chana’, ‘sarson’ and ‘masoor’, while another Rs 10,000 crore was lost through distress sale of vegetables and fruits.

He claimed that since the markets were shut and farmers have to sell at distress prices as the government was buying only 26.5 per cent of the rabi crop at MSP.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were trying to befool farmers and this was not in the national interest. They should apologise to them for betraying them by not giving even a single penny in their pocket, he noted.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram said in their estimate, the fiscal stimulus part of the second tranche of announcements was Rs 5,000 crore with which analysts agree.

“In today’s tranche, it is close to zero. Even Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman declined to answer how many of the amounts mentioned today were already part of the Expenditure Budget and how many are additional sums of money.”

His colleague and former union minister Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “Madam Finance Minister, one simple question. What is the ADDITIONAL cash you are putting into the system over the next 6 months? The announcements you made today are mostly contained in your budget presented on Feb 1. Another case of repackaging and remarketing.”

He also asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman if she would shed light on the basics of ‘atmanirbhar arthashastra’.

“On Feb 1, 2020, she projected Centre’s expenditure at Rs 30.42 lakh crore for year 2020/21. Now with ‘atmanirbhar bharat’ package what is the REVISED expenditure figure for 2020/21? Everything else is dramabaazi,” he said on Twitter.

The Congress leader said it was unfortunate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had not given anything even to the MSMEs as their own minister Nitin Gadkari had exposed the entire set of contradiction and lies by saying that the government and the PSUs owed over Rs 5 lakh crore to them.

Unfortunately, he said, neither of them even chose to express concern, much less implement any decision qua that, and “that is where the MSME minister’s statement becomes relevant and exposes the entire set of contradiction and lies on part of Union Government”.

Surjewala said the attempt of the Finance Minister to repackage the budget and befool the people is “insensitive and inhuman” and needed to be condemned.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Friday, gave details of the third tranche of the Centre’s economic package, announcing relief for agriculture and allied industries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, earlier this week, announced a cumulative package of Rs 20 lakh crore (nearly 10 per cent of GDP) to provide relief to various segments of the economy battered by coronavirus lockdown. PTI