If govt doesn't infuse cash, poor will be decimated, middle class will be new poor: Rahul

New Delhi: With India making efforts to contain the economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi warned on Saturday that if the government doesn’t infuse cash into the economy, “the poor will be decimated, the middle class will be the new poor and crony capitalists will own the country.”

He cited a news report about the plight of retrenched workers of a private company, who were staring at a long battle ahead.

Gandhi has asked the government to provide Rs 10,000 cash in the hands of each poor family immediately and provide them with Rs 7,500 every month for the next six months for them to survive effects of the lockdown. He has also called for a fiscal stimulus package for the small and medium industries.

“If the Government of India doesn’t inject cash to start the economy now, the poor will be decimated. The middle class will become the new poor. Crony capitalists will own the entire country,” Gandhi said on Twitter on Saturday.

The Congress leader has been asking the government to provide cash in the hands of the people and to the small industries, to enable them to restart the economy, which has suffered a setback due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The government has also held back the release of complete data of index of industrial production (IIP) for April, saying it is not appropriate to compare the IIP data with earlier months due to COVID-19 lockdown.