The Congress party, in a desperate move, had announced the quasi-UBI scheme termed NYAY. However, the party is still not sure about how it will fund the scheme. The party thought it to be one of its masterstrokes to win the 2019 elections. The Congress leaders are but failing to provide the source of financing that is needed to fund the scheme. To add to the confusion, there are three versions of the resource funding by three prominent leaders of the INC. The NYAY scheme assures 72000 to the 20% of the poorest every year.
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While the former Home and Finance minister P Chidambaram who played an important part role in the manifesto committee, has given one source, Sam Pitroda and Rahul Gandhi himself has something else to say. Chidambaram said that the source of money will be the increased government budget. According to him with the increase in rate of revenue generation it will help in achieving the objective of funding the NYAY scheme. The stats he used to support his proposal is the 18% increase in the revenue generated in the country.
The other narrative regarding the NYAY scheme is peddled by Sam Pitroda. He is the Chairman of the INC Overseas and also a close confidant of the INC president Rahul Gandhi. Sam Pitroda, when asked about where the scheme would get the money from, had another solution. The way suggested by Pitroda is nowhere in alignment of what P Chidambaram had to say about the scheme. Sam Pitroda said that increasing the tax will be a good method to raise money. However, what Sam Pitroda fails to understand is that increasing taxes will have a grave effect on the middle class. He has asked the middle class to not be “selfish” and how could they see poverty around them? However, Sam Pitroda’s comments on taxing the middle-class to fund the NYAY scheme promptly met with backlash.
The third channel of finance that can be used according to the Congress President Rahul Gandhi is the NPAs returns on loan from the bank. The Congress leader says “The money will come from the people who have dominated the banking system and has given nothing in return, the crony capitalist”. The factual inaccuracy of Rahul Gandhi is humorous. He is talking about loans retrieved by the NPAs which are depositor’s money in the banks. It is the money deposited by the customers that is used to provide loans to big companies. The leader proposes to take depositors money and return them under the NYAY scheme.
It is clear, how bogus is the NYAY scheme proposed by the Congress. The three heavyweight leaders are confused themselves to provide any clear views on the source of finance. It is not surprising that a leader, who was confused till the end of filling nominations, is not clear about his scheme and the funding of the same. The Congress has miserably failed to play the card that it thought could fetch it a jackpot. In essence, this Nyuntam Aay Yojna (NYAY) is a bluff the Congress now uses to fool the people of the country.