Rahul Gandhi: We will 'remonetise' what Modi demonetised

New Delhi Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the partys promised minimum income scheme for the poor will remonetise the economy damaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation asserting the antipoverty poll pledge has thrown the BJP in total disarrayGandhi also said the angel tax for startups will be scrapped if Congress comes to power calling it draconian In an exclusive interview to PTI ahead of the 17th Lok Sabha elections beginning April 11 Gandhi said Nyay the worlds biggest scheme for poor will trigger a powerful economic cycle of consumption and production in the country that would fire up the economyHe stressed that the scheme will not be implemented rashly like the demonetization and GST of the BJP Gandhis bigbang promise of giving Rs 72000 annually to each of the 5 crore poor families of the country on Monday came against the backdrop of criticism of the Modi government on joblessness farm distress and slowdown in rural economyThe scheme is being seen as a bid by the main opposition party to change the poll narrative to real issues as against attempts by the ruling BJP to whip up nationalist sentiments Touching upon a wide range of issues relating to the economy Gandhi 48 said Congress will abolish the existing angel tax imposed on startups ensure that new ventures do not require any regulatory permissions for three years and get easy access to bank creditAngel tax is levied on investment in startups Weve said that we will remove the draconian and illconceived angel tax Ive made that commitment and its going to be done Gandhi said Gandhi said promoting domestic industry will be a key priority for the Congress and it will ensure that all new businesses are freed from the clutches of red tape to give a boost to the economyOn Nyay he said it has twin objectives of giving money to the 20 per cent poorest families in India and remonetising the economy damaged by demonetisation What the PM has done over the past five years is to remove all money from the economy with failed policies like demonetisation and a poorly executed Gabbar Singh Tax GST Informal sectors have been badly hitThe aim of the Nyay scheme is twofold First is to guarantee a minimum income to the bottom 20 per cent families The second is to remonetise the economy that has been demonetised by Modiji Gandhi saidThe Congress chief said the scheme was going to dramatically increase economic growth by putting money in the hands of the poorest of the poor and rejected apprehensions that it will put increasing fiscal deficitTo a question on the scheme being prima facie populist Gandhi said it is not a populist measure as projected by some critics If giving out Rs 35 lakh crore to 15 people by Narendra Modi is not considered populist why should this be as it is aimed at benefitting the poor he saidIs it only the crony capitalist friends of Mr Modi who are to benefit from government schemes Im only asking for fairness for justice or nyay for Indias poor Theres nothing populist about that he counteredThe groundbreaking NYAY scheme has thrown the BJP in disarray Gandhi said the Congress was committed to a government that is fiscally prudent and economically astute and has come out with Nyay after doing detailed math on itAsked whether Congress coalition partners would agree to the scheme Gandhi said he had not heard any negative comments on the plan from any of the alliance partners and instead most of the opposition parties supported it as a transformational ideaThe Congress chief said there is a reason why the party christened the scheme Nyay which translates to justice in Hindi There is another aspect to calling the scheme Nyay Why have we chosen to call this scheme Justice Because over the last five years Mr Narendra Modi has simply snatched from the poor and given nothing backHe has taken away from the farmers he has snatched from the small and medium businesses hes taken away from the unemployed youth he has extinguished the savings of mothers and sisters of this country We want to return to Indias deprived sections what Modiji has snatched from them Gandhi saidTerming Nyay Nyuntam Aay Yojana a game changer and a final assault on poverty Gandhi said the scheme is fiscally perfectly doable Asked about apprehensions of some economists that Nyay which entails an expenditure of Rs 36 lakh crore annually could aggravate Indias fiscal deficit position Gandhi said No thats not rightHe said the party consulted a large number of economists and experts studied numerous papers and other research material on this subject and run an extensive financial modelling exercise before deciding to include the plan in its Lok Sabha manifestoTaking a swipe at Modi who announced the demonetisation of highvalue currency notes in a surprise move in November 2016 Gandhi said Were not rash We dont take steps like demonetisation and GST without consultations without conferring with the experts We have vetted this tested this and fiscally Nyay as a scheme is completely doableThe Congress president said Nyay will first be tested through a pilot project to smoothen out any flaws Were not going to do it the way GST was done We are first going to run a short pilot project to smoothen out any flaws in the implementation process and then roll it out nationwide Were also going to set down a robust way of identifying the beneficiaries so that no deserving family is left out he saidAsked if the pilot will be run in Congressruled states Gandhi said experts will decide on thatThis is for the experts to decide In the 10 years of the CongressUPA government we took 14 crore people out of poverty net Our goal now is to finish the job he saidGandhi added that 20 to 22 per cent of families are living in poverty even today Many of them have been pushed into this cycle by the prime ministers demonetisation scheme and Gabbar Singh Tax GST he notedOn BJPs criticism that the Congress has been using the Garibi Hatao slogan for decades the Congress chief said 70 per cent of Indias population was poor and successive Congress governments had worked to change this paradigmRemoval of poverty is a huge project and has taken decades of sustained work Since Independence Congress party has been at the forefront of antipoverty measures he saidIf Mr Modi had actually done his job properly this process would have been finished by now Unfortunately his policies have aggravated the situation by badly damaging the economy he saidCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates