New Delhi: While addressing an Opposition meet with 22 like-minded political parties via video conferencing, Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi lashed out at the Central Government over the mega economic package and called it a 'Cruel joke'.
Slamming the Central govt, Gandhi said," "Far from offering succour and support, the government has embarked on a wild adventure of so-called reforms including a grand clearance sale of Public Sector Units and repeal of labour laws."
It is to be noted that Sonia Gandhi had called for an opposition party meeting to discuss the COVID-19 and economic situation of the country.
She further added, "There is not even a pretence of consultation with stakeholders or debate in Parliament. We deplore these unilateral moves."
The Congress chief also mentioned that there was an economic crisis in the country even before the first case of coronavirus pandemic emerged. She called the stimulus package of Rs20 lakh crore announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "cruel joke" on the country.
"A number of renowned economists predicted that 2020-21 will have negative growth rate with catastrophic consequences", Congress leader added.
Congress Chief attacked the Government's strategy of dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. She said, "I am of the view that the government was uncertain about the criteria for lockdown, nor does it have an exit strategy. The successive lockdown has yielded diminishing returns. The government also stumbled badly on the testing strategy and the import of test kits."
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While mentioning about the plight of migrant labourers, she said that heart-wrenching images of migrant workers walking with their children, families without food, water and medicines have surfaced on social media who are desperate to reach their homes.
"Apart from the plight of the migrant workers, those who have been cruelly ignored include the 13 crore families in the bottom half of the population, namely- tenant farmers and landless agricultural workers, the laid-off or retrenched workers and employees, shopkeepers and self self-employed, 5.8 crore out of the 6.3 crore MSMEs and organised Industries, including large businesses, that driver country's growth," she added.
Gandhi also accused the Center of abandoning the pretence of being a 'democratic' government, saying, "All power is now concentrated in one office, PMO. The spirit of federalism, which is an integral part of our constitution is all but forgotten. There is no indication that if the two houses of Parliament or the standing committees will be summoned to meet."
It is to be noted that Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Arvind Kejriwal skipped the meeting. Whereas, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray attended it.
