COVID-19 Relief Package: No Kaam Ki Baat, Only Mann Ki Baat.

What is the definition of relief? Relief means when you are providing assistance to the people with regards to the issues which are ongoing in their life. What was the meaning of the relief package announced by the finance minister yesterday? Clear upliftment of the economy, without thinking about the people. Usage of local goodwill be promoted but isn’t it true that India does not have the technology to produce goods at a low price right now? When a person has Rs.10 in his pocket how will he purchase the local goods worth Rs.15 in front of the imported goods worth Rs.8? Is any money being given to the poor? Are they being helped in any way? When no assistance is being given to the people how can the government expect the people to go ahead and purchase local goods let alone purchase anything from the market? Is the government only for the capitalists and the industrialists? What about the people who are sleeping on the roads and what about the people who died because of a train running over them?

In our yesterday’s article we covered the aspects of how in India one specific family is moving ahead along with their culture. Equitable growth is a fantasy. All this was true once again when the finance minister gave the highlights about the twenty lakh crore package. The whole package seems to be huge but what were the actual findings that we could infer from it?

The fact that all these measures were announced during a pandemic and not in the six preceding years of BJP‘s rule says a lot about how the country is being handled.

The real issues have not been addressed even now. Are we really going ahead with all these promises which may or may not have a meaning in the near future?

Why was there no point about the poor will feed themselves? No point was made about how the poor will be fed. Why were all the measures taken for the industries, be it small or large? The state governments do not have enough money to feed their own people and are asking for their arrears from the central government. This is peoples own money which has been divided into relief packages.

What is being done with the relief package? Is it just like the promise of transforming Varanasi into Kyoto and ending terrorism with demonetization?

There are four major problems going on in our country right now namely migrant laborers, money the states need, high unemployment rate, and hungry people. None of this was addressed in this package. The least the government could do was commit to the people for a few jobs. All these measures are coming out to be highly insensitive because they are not focusing on the real issues.

Various ministers and people in power have also commented about the negative impact of this package on the poor people. When nothing goes right who will they go to? When nothing goes right for them they are supposed to go to the government but in our case the government is not working for them. The huge number of the package is just something which the government is using for distracting people. People who need immediate help aren’t even being talked about. How is the TDS reduction important for them? What about the laborers who are going back to the villages with new hopes of a future? What about the children in the villages who are not studying for the past three months? Moreover what about the people who have various diseases but cannot go to the hospital and are dying in their homes? There was no link between what is the Prime Minister said and what the finance minister said. Even during the times of a pandemic no humanity is shown. Relief packages are meant for the people only and only if it goes to their bank account in the form of cash.

According to basic accounting is the rules, repaying of the tax refunds is not called a favor. Why were they not refunded earlier? Was the economy in such a bad shape that it was not even able to pay back the tax refunds?

How is providing a large number of loans to the company is a relief package? In future the companies, in any case, have to be that back. There is zero revenue right now so direct cash should be given to the company and not the loans. The banks already had a vision of granting additional loans to the small sectors so that they don’t turn sick. So what was this relief really about?

Reclassification of the MSME is not a relief package. Regrouping for the same is done because the government sees its own profit again.

Providing relief to the telecom sector was a big blank move. Was this relief package announced because Ambani is the ruler of the telecom sector?

Why was the TDS reduction done? The tax liability hasn’t come down, right? The tax rates have and come down. Something had to be done about the tax rates and not about the tedious. Tax rates as something which has a direct impact on everyone from a person living in a village to go person living in a bungalow.

When a majority part of the people are going back to their hometowns my food, relief packages worth crores of being announced. People who are sitting in their home are listening to the relief packages, what about those who are actually on the road going back to their homes in search of some food? The fact that when the lockdown came into practice people were told to go out in their balconies and bang bartans, actually showed that the PM believes that everyone in our country has a house and a balcony. People don’t have food to eat how will they have a house to live? People were told to light diyas to brighten the atmosphere, what about the bright and ‘achhe din’ part of the promise?

During the times when insurance must be given to the people, food must be given to every family, education must be provided to every child in the country, we are talking about relief packages for making our country independent.

People are happy that the relief package has been announced but it is a big zero for the population of India which is not having food and money to purchase the ‘Vocal Se Local’ goods!