Rahul promises minimum income guarantee to poor

Raipur: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has promised that his party, if voted to power in the Lok Sabha elections this year, will ensure minimum basic income for the poor in the country.

“After winning the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-led government will do what no other government has done so far. We will ensure guaranteed basic income for the poor in the country,” Rahul Gandhi said while speaking at a rally in Chhattisgarh.

Rahul Gandhi reiterated this promise in a tweet. "If voted to power in 2019, the Congress is committed to a minimum income guarantee for every poor person, to help eradicate poverty and hunger. This is our vision and our promise," Rahul Gandhi said in his tweet.

Interestingly, in the first sentence of his tweet, Rahul Gandhi mirrored PM Narendra Modi and spoke about building a "new India".

"We cannot build a new India while millions of our brothers & sisters suffer the scourge of poverty," Rahul Gandhi said in his tweet. Minimum income for the poor is a derivation of the concept of universal basic income, under which a citizen of a country gets a guaranteed monthly stipend, regardless of her social, economic or educational standing. 

There has been some debate in India over the subject of implementing universal basic income in the country. In 2016-17, the Economic Survey of India had presented a model for universal basic income. The Economic Survey of India had fixed an income of Rs 7,620 per person per annum under its model of universal basic income. 

The survey had estimated that such a model of universal basic income will cost 4.9 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP). Speaking today, Rahul Gandhi did not go into the specifics of how a Congress-led government would ensure unviersal basic income for the poor.