Two 'intellectuals' join in to laud UPA's economic schemes; Suggest give direct cash to revive economy

There's a very good phrase in English, 'A drowning man will clutch at a straw', which simply means that when any person is in a difficult situation, he takes any available opportunity to improve its position. Isn't Rahul Gandhi or for that matter the Indian National Congress's so called 'economic talk' a move to make stable its drowning position?

 

Turning up to his new carreer path, that of an interviewer or a future journalist may be, Congress's Rahul Gandhi in his second such initiative held a deep discourse over 'how to revive Indian economy amid Corona' with Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee this time. And guess what, Banerjee said that giving away money directly to people would be the best way to revive the economy.

 

 

He also suggested to decentralise the economy and said that all the decisions must be taken at the state-level, district-level and town-level. Now, we all are quite mature enough to imagine the COVID-19 situation if so had happened and that if the states like Rajasthan, West Bengal or Maharashtra for that matter were to take their own individual decisions. Further taking a jibe to the current economic status led by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Banerjee said that targeting the MSME sector would be the right channel. "Real concerns are -- will the economy revive, and in particular, how does one think through the possible time paths of this disease through that process", he said.

 

It is more about reviving demand. Giving money in the hands of everybody, so that they can buy from stores or they buy consumer goods. So MSME produces a bunch of stuff that people will want. They've not been buying it. If they had money or even if you promise them money, it doesn't have to be that the money is there right now, he added playing a toung twister probably.

 

Further, speaking about the migrants in particular, Banerjee noted, "One of the ideas that was mooted in the last years of the UPA but also embraced by the current government was the idea that the Aadhaar would be made national and therefore would be used for Public Distribution System and other things. Aadhaar-based claims on PDS would make one eligible wherever they are. That would have been wonderful to have right now."

 

He even said that temporary ration cards should be given to everybody for the next six months that would kind of save a lot of misery. Because then a lot of people would be able to go to the local ration shop, the Nobel laureate said. To note here, Abhijeet Banerjee was labelled as Nobel laureate last year in the month October and he noted no moment to comment on the fall in consumption as new challenge for India. Banerjee had then blamed centre's big-ticket economic decisions, demonetisation and implementation of Goods and Services Tax - for what he called a demand problem.

 

Dr Banerjee, born in 1961 in India, studied at the University of Calcutta and the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. He got his PhD in 1988 from Harvard University. Well, it won't be an exaggeration to highlight the fact that both the Havard graduates (Rahul Gandhi and Banerjee) joined in together today laud the 'UPA government' economic schemes and demean the BJP's current status, instead of giving the actual solution the revive the economy, if they had planned to.

 

Pity is to see the Indian National Congress Party play such political, economical gimmicks when the nation is fighting hard against the deadly spread of COVID-19! Now it won't be a grand surprise if Rahul in his next series invites Tihar return P Chidambaram to talk on measures curb frauds to revive economy in India.