Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeting that his government’s management of the second wave of COVID-19 has made “97 per cent of Indians poorer”.
The Congress leader shared the screenshot of a news report that quoted the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) chief claiming that the economic impact of lockdowns (imposed by different State governments) in the second wave has resulted in double digit unemployment in May this year and resulted in 97% people becoming poorer because of COVID.
“One man and his arrogance + One virus and its mutants,” tweeted Mr. Gandhi blaming the pandemic and the Prime Minister for the economic situation in the country.
In another tweet, he said, “The Modi government’s zero vaccine policy is akin to putting a knife through Mother India’s heart. Sad reality.”
Rise in bank fraud
At a separate press conference, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh asserted that the Modi government’s promise of making India a $5 trillion economy remains a dream, but in the past seven years. the total amount involved in bank frauds has nearly reached ₹5 trillion or ₹5 lakh crore.
“For the year 2020-21, when loan moratorium was in effect till August 31, 2020 and restructuring initiatives were in effect for until December 31, 2020, the fraud amount for the entire year was still ₹1,38,422 crore,” Mr. Vallabh said, citing an Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report.
He said the compounded annual growth rate of the total fraud amount has been 57% between between 2014-15 and 2019-20.
“Why has the government failed to curb the bank frauds in the last 7 years? What is the government doing to recover the amount involved in these bank frauds? How much amount has been collected from these fraudsters who are weakening our banking system,” asked Mr. Vallabh
“The Congress party urges that the Modi government handles these fraudsters with an iron fist and make sure that the entire amount, that belongs to our nation, be recovered as soon as possible,” he added.
