'Rs 6,000-a-month plan is Congress' surgical strike on poverty: Rahul

Jaipur: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday termed his party's promise of minimum guaranteed income to the poorest 20 per cent households a "surgical strike on poverty" and said nobody should be poor in 21st century India.

Addressing a rally in Suratgarh town of Ganganagar district, a day after declaring his party would roll out the scheme if voted to power, Gandhi alleged that Prime Minster Narendra Modi gave money to the rich and top industrialists of the country, but the Congress would serve the poor.

He said the promised minimum income scheme was a "big bang". "Dhamaka hai ye...bomb fatega (It's a big bang...a bomb will set off). This is a Congress's surgical strike on poverty. They (the BJP) worked to eliminate the poor we will eliminate poverty," Gandhi said.

He went on to say that his party consulted former RBI governor Rahuram Rajan and "all big economists, without telling anyone, without giving any speeches". "We were engaged in this work for six months. Take the list of all big economists of the world, we consulted them...Raghuram Rajan...one by one."

On helping the poor, he said, "We thought how it should be done. After discussion and brainstorming, we thought that there should be a minimum income line of Rs 12,000 per month. Soon after formation of the Congress government in 2019, the minimum income line in India will be Rs 12,000 per month."

The name of the proposed scheme is 'Nyuntam Aay Yojana' or Nyay. The word 'Nyay' stands for justice in Hindi. He alleged that poverty and unemployment increased under the Modi government.