Govt widening economic inequality in India; central policies 'increasing' poverty: Cong

On Tuesday, Congress slammed BJP for widening the economic inequality in India. The Congress had on Monday accused the Modi government of working only for a "handful of people" and said the richest 21 Indians have more wealth than 70 crore people put together.

New Delhi:The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP government of widening the economic inequality in India and said the richest one per cent owns more than 40 per cent of the country's wealth, while half the population has only three per cent of it. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has widened the gap between the rich and the poor so much that the "common man continues to sink in its abyss".

"The richest one per cent in India owns more than 40 per cent of the country's wealth, whereas half of the population has only three per cent left! Bharat Jodo Yatra is a movement to fill the gap of economic inequality," he said in a tweet in Hindi. Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi also said the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is the voice of people against such policies of the government which he alleged have increased poverty.

"Twenty-one billionaires have more wealth than 70 crore Indians. The richest one per cent population has 40 per cent wealth of India," he tweeted in Hindi. "The UPA lifted more than 20 crore people out of poverty. PM's 'increase poverty' policies pushed them again into poverty. Bharat Jodo Yatra is the voice of the country against these policies of the government," he added.

The Congress had on Monday accused the Modi government of working only for a "handful of people" and said the richest 21 Indians have more wealth than 70 crore people put together. The attack came after the rights group Oxfam on Monday released its latest inequality report in which it said the richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country's total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth.

Releasing the India supplement of its annual inequality report on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Oxfam International said taxing India's 10-richest at 5 per cent can fetch the entire money to bring children back to school. "A one-off tax on unrealised gains from 20172021 on just one billionaire, Gautam Adani, could have raised Rs 1.79 lakh crore, enough to employ more than five million Indian primary school teachers for a year," it added.

The report titled 'Survival of the Richest' further said that if India's billionaires are taxed once at 2 per cent on their entire wealth, it would support the requirement of Rs 40,423 crore for the nutrition of the malnourished in the country for the next three years. (PTI)