BJP defends govt's COVID package, shrugs off criticism on migrant mess

The fiscal part of ₹20 lakh crore economic package announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was only one per cent of the GDP, according to Nalin Kohli, a senior spokesperson of the BJP and Supreme Court advocate.

In a detailed interview with The Federal, Kohli explained that the package was comparable to similar packages announced by other countries to deal with the economic crisis caused by Coronavirus pandemic. According to him, ₹20 lakh crore was not a “complete” fiscal package.

Instead, it was a “fundamental and transformative” package that had three objectives. First was a ₹2 lakh crore component that went directly to the accounts of the poorest of the poor. The second was equal to ₹8 lakh crore aimed at addressing the loan, credit and liquidity requirements of the industry. The third part of the package was reforms aimed at transforming the Indian industry from “local to global” which was equivalent to 4 to 5 per cent of the GDP.

Kohli was replying to a question why the financial package was more about credit lines, moratoriums and reforms and very little by way of cash relief to the migrants that may have helped mitigate their immediate sufferings.

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Though the government claimed that about 10 per cent of the GDP was earmarked by it to deal with the financial crisis, critics have been pointing out that a large portion was derived from the current annual budget without any fresh infusion.

To a question why BJP, which is a grassroots party with the largest membership in the world, and the RSS, its mother organisation with enormous reach, missed signals about possible migration of workers in the informal sector, Kohli blamed the opposition. He said the migrants could be “instigated for fear” leading to a desperate decision of rushing back to their home towns.

He gave three examples to prove his allegations. He said rumours were spread in Delhi that buses were waiting at Ghazipur border point to take the migrants back home, second Tablighi Jamaat became a super spreader and thirdly there were multiple congregations of migrant workers in Mumbai. All this violated social distancing norms, he said.

While he singled out opposition ruled states for his criticism, the BJP ruled Karnataka got a word of praise from him. He said the state government there transferred money into the accounts of construction workers.

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He questioned the 12 crore job loss figures quoted by the Opposition, asking where did the figures come from. He was wondering whether this was “fear-mongering”. “Are we also instigating for fear leading to decisions,” he asked.

These were actually figures estimated by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), which is a leading business information company.

On why it took 50 days for the trains to be commissioned for the movement of migrants he said, “the train is merely a mechanism to carry migrant labour from a sending state to a receiving state”, to provide movement to the people. The actual decision to move people was to be taken between the two states as it is possible that while “the sending state was willing to send the migrants, the receiving state needed time to create quarantine facilities.”

He said, “it is easy to hold the centre responsible,” but the question should also be asked why more migrants were leaving from some states as compared to others.”

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Asked how he sees the current situation where, on the one hand, while the pandemic seems to be raging with peak nowhere in sight after four lockdowns, on the other the opening up process had actually begun in the form of unlocking 1.0,  he said he was not an “epidemiologist” to answer that question. But he did draw satisfaction from the fact that India’s COVID-19 death rate was low, the percentage of patients recovering from the ailment was as high as 48 per cent and there was very little requirement of ventilators.

On Bihar elections, he reiterated the party’s stand of going with the existing ally in the form of Nitish Kumar. He expressed no views on the apprehensions raised by the Opposition that the state unit of the party was pushing for online polling.

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