[After loan waiver for the farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan comes the promise for basic income for poor.
Modi's response is asking the Supreme Court for land in Ayodhya for Ram Temple (ref.: < https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-ayodhya-case-government-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-it-to-hand-over-part-of-land-that-is-not-unde-1984715?amp=1&fbclid=IwAR1pHU43I3NYRxHzrbVCK0ncQ5w-j5FgxPRMCvNum-SVE5uLk-6YzxYOJCw >). Of course, the "budget" will also play its role.] I/II. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/rahul-gandhi-minimum-income-guarantee-congress-lok-sabha-elections-5558607/?fbclid=IwAR1ufAIcNsc-jfauJI2nOL3fEv1EcshameLte6r4bT_U_hQLObNze_hanWk In Raipur, Rahul Gandhi’s poll promise: Vote me in, guarantee minimum income The idea of a universal basic income has been discussed in policy circles in India since former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian highlighted it in the Economic Survey two years ago. Written by Dipankar Ghose | Raipur | Updated: January 29, 2019 7:31:27 am Congress president Rahul Gandhi with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Raipur on Monday. (PTI) With Lok Sabha elections just a few months away, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Monday announced that if voted to power, his government would provide a “minimum income guarantee to every poor person” in the country. Addressing a large gathering at the Kisan Abhaar rally in Atal Nagar, Rahul Gandhi said, “It is a historic decision. No government anywhere in the world has taken such a decision. Only the Congress can do it. The Congress party has decided that immediately after winning the 2019 elections, the government will provide a guarantee for minimum income to every poor. This means there will be a minimum income in the bank account of every poor Indian. This means that nobody in India will stay hungry, or will be poor.” The idea of a universal basic income has been discussed in policy circles in India since former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian highlighted it in the Economic Survey two years ago. He had undertaken an elaborate study and suggested that such a scheme — costing about 4.5-5 per cent of the GDP — can be implemented if it were to replace all existing subsidies. On Monday, much of Rahul’s speech revolved around the idea of India — one of his party, and the other of the BJP. “One Hindustan is of Narendra Modi, is of Anil Ambani, of Nirav Modi, of Mehul Choksi, of Vijay Mallya. They keep you standing in line during notebandi. They steal your money and put it in the pockets of Anil Ambani. They tell you that the country needs defence, but take money from the Air Force and give it to Anil Ambani. So the Congress party has taken a historic decision. And I am saying this not just to the people of Chhattisgarh, but to the poor people of India. I am saying it from this stage. Whatever I say, I do. Whether it is loan waivers, whether it is the question of giving land back to farmers, whether it is about giving the right price to farmers. I complete the promises I make,” he said. The Congress President said, “We gave a guarantee under MNREGA for 100 days of work, gave the right to food (security). We gave the right to information, which as a guarantee, opened the doors of the bureaucracy. Now, a minimum income guarantee.” Rahul also gave away symbolic loan waiver certificates to farmers from Chhattisgarh. He praised the Bhupesh Baghel-led state government for waiving short term loans of farmers worth Rs 6,000 crores from cooperative and government banks, setting the price of paddy procurement at Rs 2,500, and its decision to return land in Bastar earlier acquired for a Tata Project which failed to get off the ground. “What the BJP couldn’t do in 15 years, the Congress did in two days.” Rahul said there was no shortage of money. “Narendra Modi and the BJP want to make two Hindustans. One Hindustan of the Rafale scam, of Anil Ambani, of Mehul Choksi. In that Hindustan, whatever you want, you can get. You want the Rafale contract? You will get it. You want land, you will get that. You want water, you will get that too. The other Hindustan is the Hindustan of the poor. Of the farmers and the youth. In that you will get thing. In that you can only listen to Mann ki Baat. 24 hours Mann ki Baat, Man ki Baat, Man ki Baat,” he said. The Congress President, however, did not offer any details on the minimum income guarantee, or the definition of poor. While the individual income-tax exemption limit in India is Rs 2.5 lakh, in April 2009, the Arjun Sengupta Committee had said about 836 million people, or 77% of India’s population were living on less than Rs 20 per day at the end of 2004-05. A committee headed by Suresh Tendulkar had said that India’s combined rural-urban poverty headcount ratio in 2004-05 stood at 37.2%, with the poverty line at Rs 447 in rural areas and at Rs 579 in urban areas based on consumption expenditure. II. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/rahul-gandhi-minimum-income-guarantee-congress-party-upa-elections-2019-5558603/?fbclid=IwAR15w0M-AihdQXwAFmtaL8kqMfrJ6Tj5gQDOP2WzBRwJFfamnhBQZcVcQ_c Minimum income promise: Party idea radical, marks return to UPA social welfare politics Congress leaders were quick to describe the idea of minimum income guarantee a game changer. Chidambaram called Gandhi’s announcement historic which will mark a turning point in the lives of the poor. Written by Manoj C G | New Delhi | Updated: January 29, 2019 9:08:10 am Rahul Gandhi, minimum income gurantee, minimum income promise congress, minimum income, lok sabha elections, elections 2019, elections 2019 rahul gandhi, minimum income poll promise, rahul gandhi in chhattisgarh, indian express, latest news Rahul Gandhi may not have revealed the finer details of his promise of providing minimum income guarantee to poor, but the Congress think tank tasked with drawing up the party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections has been on the idea for some time. (File) Rahul Gandhi’s promise of minimum income guarantee may be radical, but the Congress party under him had taken that leap in imagining its version of a welfare state over the last six months to a year leading up to victory in the three Hindi heartland states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Monday’s announcement by Rahul, coupled with the promise of a national farm loan waiver, marks a return to a more aggressive UPA politics. The UPA I and II governments had delivered path-breaking social justice schemes including MGNREGA (rural job guarantee), right to food and right to information. NREGA along with the Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver for farmers played a major role in the Congress’s victory in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Express Explained: Timing and significance of Rahul’s promise of a minimum guaranteed income Rahul may not have revealed the finer details of his promise of providing minimum income guarantee to poor, but the Congress think tank tasked with drawing up the party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections has been on the idea for some time. Sources said the manifesto would likely bring “40 per cent” of the population under the minimum income guarantee scheme. This will include “small farmers”. Rahul Gandhi ✔ @RahulGandhi We cannot build a new India while millions of our brothers & sisters suffer the scourge of poverty. If voted to power in 2019, the Congress is committed to a Minimum Income Guarantee for every poor person, to help eradicate poverty & hunger. This is our vision & our promise. Incidentally,Gandhi himself admitted, over a year ago, that UPA’s 2004 vision had a ‘sell-by date’ of 10 years, and it “was already not working” by 2010-11. “The vision that we had laid out in 2004 was designed, at best, for a 10-year period. And it was pretty clear that the vision that we had laid out in 2004… by the time we arrived in 2010-11, it was already not working,” he had said at the University of California, Berkeley in September 2017. In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the Congress manifesto not only promised farm loan waivers, which the governments announced no sooner they were formed, but also unemployment allowances. The unemployment allowance promised in Madhya Pradesh is as high as Rs 10,000, and in Rajasthan it is Rs 3,500. The Chhattisgarh Congress too included such a dole in its manifesto, but did not provide details. While the timing of Rahul’s announcement is seen an an attempt to pre-empt the government from proposing an Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all poor in the interim budget — the Economic Survey for 2016-17 had already talked about the idea of a sovereign wealth fund and citizen’s dividend, party leaders said minimum income guarantee is a logical extension of the right-based initiatives taken by the UPA governments. UBI for 40 per cent of the population at the bottom, that will include small farmers, is one of the ideas under consideration,” a senior Congress leader told The Indian Express. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who heads the manifesto committee, said the party will give more “details of the plan” in the manifesto. He maintained that the party will find the resources to implement the scheme. “The poor of India has the first right to the country’s resources,” he said. Congress leaders were quick to describe the idea of minimum income guarantee a game changer. Chidambaram called Gandhi’s announcement historic which will mark a turning point in the lives of the poor. “The principle of Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been discussed extensively in the last two years. The time has come to adapt the principle to our situation and our needs and implement the same for the poor. We will explain our plan in the Congress manifesto. 140 million people were lifted out of poverty between 2004 and 2014. Now we should make a determined effort to wipe out poverty in India,” he said. EXPLAINED Gamechanger, but funds a test Rahul Gandhi’s minimum income guarantee promise ahead of elections is a powerful idea. It has not been undertaken in a sustained manner anywhere in the world. With this announcement, he has taken the first mover advantage. The idea of universal basic income itself is untested, but the biggest challenge will be to raise the money required. While Gandhi had been talking about addressing the issue of unemployment and lack of job creation and waiver of farm loans, the Congress’s election narrative so far had not specifically thrown an idea at the poor, an amorphous entity which was at the centre of its campaign narrative both in 2004 and 2009. The party’s campaign slogan for 2004 was ‘Congress Ka Haath, Garibon Ke Saath’. Five years later in 2009, the party modified it to ‘Aam Aadmi Ke Badhte Kadam.Har Kadam Par Bharat Buland’. In 2014, the party, however, shed the terms aam aadmi and garib — not surprisingly since the AAP had by then emerged as a force in Delhi — and moved to a generic tagline ‘Main Nahin, Hum’ (it’s not me, it’s us). Be it NREGA, Right to Food, The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, the law to give legal sanction to street vendors across the country, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, National Rural Health, Right to Education and Forest Rights Act —- the UPA decade has been all about social security programmes and welfare politics. And Gandhi has signalled a return to the tried and tested planks. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
