Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar on Thursday said the Central government is trying to divert the attention of people from the deteriorating state of the economy by introducing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Addressing a press conference at the VBA office in south Mumbai, Mr. Ambedkar said instead of running a missed call campaign to build support for the CAA, the government should devise methods to fill the shortfall in revenue.
‘Reach out to donors’
He said, “The budgeted tax collection estimate for the current fiscal was ₹24.6 lakh crore. However, recent reports indicate that the government will only reach up to ₹11.43 lakh crore. Instead of the missed call campaign in support of CAA and NRC, the BJP government should organise a campaign to reach out to millions of Indians to donate money to bridge the revenue shortfall.”
Mr. Ambedkar said the Centre is acting like a drunkard and it thinks that the only way to resuscitate the economy is by selling government properties.
He said, “The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, the Oil and Natural Gas Cooperation, the Container Corporation of India and several others. They are all on the list of the NITI Aayog. While their internal valuation is over ₹9 lakh crore, the government wants to sell them for ₹70,000 crore.”
Referring to the brutal police crackdown on students and protesters across the country, Mr. Ambedkar said, “Instead of sending students and teachers to hospitals, the government should focus on the state of the economy.” He added, “Our Gross Domestic Product growth has slipped to 4.5% from 6.8% in 2018-19. This slowdown is going to impact the country in many ways and it is likely going to enter into a coma.”
