'Assured income for poor won't be like Modi’s pittance'

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said his party’s promise of guaranteed minimum income for the country’s poor will not be like the pittance being offered to beleaguered farmers by the Modi government.

“The poor in the country will know what it (minimum guaranteed income) will be like,” Gandhi said indicating at a much higher sum of money to the poor as a monthly income guarantee.

Rahul Gandhi also said his party will introduce a ‘simple GST with minimum and one tax’ once it comes to power. Addressing a public rally in Punjab’s Moga, Gandhi said the Congress will implement the guaranteed minimum income scheme where the money will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

Gandhi lambasted Prime Minister Modi while accusing him of being in cahoots with industrialists to convert their black money into white money after demonetization. He alleged that Modi was dishing out a loan waiver of a whopping Rs 3.5 lakh crores for a select 15 industrialists of the country. “If the loans for the richest people can be waived off, why not for the farmers in distress, he said.

Gandhi also targeted Modi on the Rafale deal reiterating his charge that Modi conducted parallel negotiations with the company because he wanted to help Anil Ambani.