New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi is calling on the government to immediately inject a sum of Rs 7,500 directly into 50 per cent of Indian households to help ease the economic pain caused by the coronavirus lockdown.
“It’s not such a big ask,” he said on Friday at an e-press conference, responding to a question by India Today TV on whether the time is ripe for a national policy on migrant labour.
The Congress leader is also advocating a slew of measures to help MSMEs, including a Rs 1 lakh crore wage protection scheme and a six-month interest subsidy.
“It is pretty clear that a lot of these companies are going to go down. If we do not do anything, a massive number of them are going to go down,” Rahul Gandhi said.
“We have to build a wall for them so they can fight what is coming,” he said. “We have to build financial support behind them.”
He advocated a comprehensive approach to restarting the economy, pointing out that there’s a link between MSMEs and big business.
“If we suddenly say only small business is going to be helped and big business is going to be left to its own devices, we’ll actually harm small businesses as well,” he said.
“If you want to start the engine, you cannot think of starting just one part of the engine.”
