Coronavirus: Critics question PM-CARES, ask why not PMNRF?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "highly unusual" decision to set up a new public charitable fund PM-CARES Fund instead of using the existing PM National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to collect funds from the public to fight COVID-19 has come under criticism with opponents accusing him of using a tragedy to enhance personality cult.

Modi has on March 28 announced the setting up of public charitable ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund) with the "primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected". Besides the Prime Minister as Chairman of the Trust, it has the Defence Minister, the Home Minister and the Finance Minister as members among others.

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Prominent historian Ramachandra Guha questioned the move by tagging a thread of tweets that raised concerns about the decision. He tweeted, "why a new fund when a Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund already exists? And why the self-aggrandizing name, PM-CARES? Must a colossal national tragedy also be (mis)used to enhance the cult of personality?"

Senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also jumped into the discussion as he tweeted, "Why not simply rename PMNRF as PM-CARES, given the Prime Minister's penchant for catchy acronyms, instead of creating a separate Public Charitable Trust whose rules and expenditure are totally opaque? @PMOIndia, you owe the country an explanation for this highly unusual step."

On Sunday, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury asked, "We all care about our fellow-citizens and their well-being and must help in every way. Why just ‘PM-CARES’? INDIA-CARES is what it should have been."

As per the latest statistics available on PMNRF website, the Fund had a balance of Rs 3,800.44 crore at the end of 2018-19 fiscal. Since 2009-10, the PMNRF, which was set up in 1948 following an appeal by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has received contributions to the tune of Rs 4,713.57 crore out of which Rs 2.524.77 crore was disbursed as relief for riots, flood, drought, earthquakes, cyclone, Tsunami and medical aid among others.

Even as several people questioned the move while insisting that PMNRF could be utilised, the government and banks have warned people of fake Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ID being circulated on the pretext of PM-CARES Fund. The government has warned donors against fake UPI IDs doing the rounds on the various social media platforms. "Beware of Fake UPI ID being circulating on the pretext of PM CARES Fund. The correct UPI ID of #PMCaresFunds is pmcares@sbi," government's media wing Press Information Bureau (PIB) tweeted.

While announcing the setting up of the Fund, an official statement has said Modi has "always believed and shown in actions that public participation is the most effective way" to mitigate any issue and this is yet another example. "This fund will enable micro-donations as a result of which a large number of people will be able to contribute with smallest of denominations," it had said.

President Ram Nath Kovind was among the first to pledge a donation to PM-CARES Fund by offering one-month salary while several business houses and prominent personalities like cricketer Virat Kohli, actor Akshay Kumar and government organisations among others either pledged donations or transferred money to the Fund. Top Ministers like Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah also announced that they would be contributing to the Fund.