Rahul: ‘Nyay’ will revive economy

Bajipura (Gujarat), April 19

Congress president Rahul Gandhi today said his party’s ‘Nyay’ scheme would help in revival of the economy and create jobs in the country, which has been badly affected by demonetisation and GST decisions of the Narendra Modi government.

Addressing a rally here, Gandhi repeated his “chowkidar chor hai” (the watchman is thief) jibe to target Modi and alleged he has given Rs30,000 crore to businessman Anil Ambani in the Rafale deal. “We have promised to give Rs72,000 crore (a year) to poor people under the Nyay scheme which will change the economic condition of the poor,” he said.

Gandhi said the scheme, Nyuntam Aay Yojana (Nyay) — a key feature of the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls — was devised after consultations within the party. “I had called all economists of the Congress and asked them what is the amount that we can give to the poor. They came up with the figure of Rs72,000,” he said, adding that Modi had made a false promise of giving Rs15 lakh, but the Congress would definitely give Rs3.60 lakh (estimated cost of ‘Nyay’).

He attacked the Modi government over its 2016 note-ban exercise. “One fine day, Modi announced that notes of Rs1,000 and Rs500 have been scrapped as they do not help me create more black money. So I will introduce a new note of Rs2,000 as through it we can make more black money,” Gandhi said, mocking the demonetisation move. “Then they introduced Gabbar Singh Tax. Both the steps were big blows to our economy,” he said, criticising the BJP-led government over its implementation of the GST. — PTI

‘Modi to be removed’

• Rahul Gandhi asserted that PM Narendra Modi would be ‘removed from Delhi’ and Congress would form government after the polls
• On the final lap of his campaign in the Congress-JD(S) alliance-ruled Karnataka, he also hit out at Modi for ‘what he has done’ to his ‘guru’, LK Advani, saying he should be ‘ashamed’ of it
• He held rallies at Raichur and Chikkodi in north Karnataka, where second phase of polling is on April 23