Jawaharlal Nehru was working on similar scheme

New Delhi: Leaning on welfare economics in a bid to return to power in Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Monday announced its ambitious minimum inco-me guarantee scheme. or Nyuntam Aay Yojana (Nyay), under which 20 per cent of the poorest families in India would be given an income support of Rs 6,000 per month or Rs 72,000 per annum, benefiting about five crore households, or about 25 crore family members.

Terming the scheme as “historic” even in the global context, Mr Gandhi said, “It has been worked out that a total of five crore families or 25 crore individuals will directly benefit from the scheme.”

“It is an extremely powerful, ground-breaking and well-thought through idea. We have consulted many economists on the scheme,” he said.

The Congress president also said that an expert committee would be formed for implementation of the programme if the party is voted to power.

He said that the scheme would be the final assault on poverty and a kind of part II of the UPA government’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or the Mgnrega.

Training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Gandhi said, “If PM Modi can give Rs 350,000 crore to India’s richest, then we can do the same for India’s poorest.” “Narendra Modi is creating two Indias in the country and we will not allow two Indias and will be only one India. There will be no two Indias,” he said. Saying that the poor have suffered in the last five years, the Congress president said, “We are going to provide justice to them.” Nyay is likely to entail an annual expenditure of Rs 360,000 crore, which is six times the outlay for Mgnrega in 2018-19 — Rs 55,000 crore.

Way back in 1938 when Subhash Chandra Bose was the party president, the AICC session in Haripura, Gujarat had discussed it and a separate committee to work out the contours had been formed under the leadership of none other than Late Prime Minister Jaw-aharlal Nehru.  However, the rough and tumble of the Quit India Movement and later political happenings saw the matter getting buried. A good 80 years later though Mr Nehru’s great grandson has now proposed one of the most ambitious welfare programmes of the world, they said.