Bengaluru: In what may or may not be a planned leak to give wider play to the Opposition party's poll plank of NYAY, a minimum income guarantee scheme announced by the Congress in its manifesto, party president Rahul Gandhi can be heard, talking up the extensive brainstorming he did with Indian economists, contrasting this with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's modus operandi of consulting no-one and flying solo.
In the six-and-a-half minute clip of his conversation with KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, that surfaced in a leaked video clip on Saturday Mr Gandhi explains how NYAY was conceptualised after his many consultations with leading Indian economists, to arrive at the figure of Rs 72,000 a year for each poor family. This scheme would help jump start the economy and restore the purchasing capacity of people with the money credited in the accounts of the poor, Rahul said, while driving home that his ability to listen and work with a team was critical.
“We have talent, we need to utilise (talent). That is what I did, when we thought of coming out with NYAY scheme,” Mr Gandhi said, adding that Mr Modi does not grasp things and issues properly.
“When we are interacting or trying to frame any policy or work, we try to utilise available talents properly. Be it the case of Congress governments in the past or even Bharatiya Janata Party’s Atal Behari Vajpyee's term, most of the leaders in these governments knew how to utilise talent available with them. During Mr Modi's five year term he does not know how to utilise talent available with him,” Mr Gandhi observed, adding Mr Modi thinks “by himself” and “acts on it without much information.” The Congress president also wondered aloud why Mr Modi never addresses the media. “When Mr Siddaramaiah was chief minister, he used to address so many press conferences but I don't know what stops him (Mr Narendra Modi) from addressing a press conference.'
When Mr Rao comments on demonetization of currency, Mr Gandhi sarcastically remarks that even a 12-year-old would have told him not to do such a thing. On the implementation of GST, Mr Gandhi says it was almost like firing a nuclear weapon without any prior thought.
During the conversation, Mr Gandhi is all praise for former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his expertise in economics and how an off-the-cuff remark about a possible dip in GDP came true.
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