Throwing more light on his party’s proposed minimum income guarantee programme — Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY), Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that his party had already done “all financial calculations” and during the course of implementation of NYAY, a large number of "small "and “ineffective” would be “subsumed” in the flagship programme while keeping intact “strategic” schemes like MGNREGA.
Interacting with over 5,000 college students at the Lakshmi Lawns at Hadapsar in Pune, Gandhi said: “We have done all our financial calculations. There are a large number of small schemes that are not really effective. Those schemes will be subsumed but schemes like MGNREGA will continue to function as usual. I want to guarantee one thing to you that is: The money will not be a burden for the middle class. Income taxes will not be raised. We deliver NYAY without raising income tax”.
“Not only will NYAY happen, but we have already known where the money is going to come from and how it is going to happen. We have already thought about the pilot project and phases it is going to happen. We have not just said we will do it. In fact, we have studied the details how it is going to be done,” the Congress president said.
In his elaboration, Gandhi said: “There is plenty of money in the system. There is no shortage of money in the system. The money will come from Mr Anil Ambani. The money will come from the crony capitalists who dominated the banking system and not given anything in return. Money will also come from people. When we inject money into every poor person’s bank account, the Indian economy will start again”
“What has happened is that Indian economy is jammed shut. I told you, 27,000 jobs are lost every day. Economic cycle is not fine. The moment we start to put money into the hands of the people, they will start buying things. The moment the people start buying things, production will begin and factories will start working. The moment factories will start working, we will start getting taxes. That’s where the money will come from,” Gandhi said.
“The issue is not where the money will come from (for implementing NYAY). We will deliver that. Why should 15 people get unlimited access to money, when no else has access to such kind of money in India,” he said.
On the Congress’ plans to close down Niti Ayog and bring back Planning Commission, Gandhi said: “The difference between Niti Ayog and Planning Commission is that Nitin Ayog gets into implementation of policies. It talks about how some projects should be carried out. The Planning Commission plans India’s strategy. The planning commission was a strategic institution. It did not do things atthe project level. It did things at the national level. We believe that India needs an institution that strategically thinks about what needs to done”.
Lamenting that there had been drastic cuts in expenditure on education and health care, Gandhi said that the Congress, if voted to power, would put significant money into health and education.