Addressing a large gathering at the Kisan Abhaar rally in Atal Nagar, Rahul said, “It is a historic decision. No government anywhere in the world has taken such a decision. Only the Congress can do it. The Congress party has decided that immediately after winning the 2019 elections, the government will provide a guarantee for minimum income to every poor. This means there will be a minimum income in the bank account of every poor Indian. This means that nobody in India will stay hungry, or will be poor.”
The Congress president said, “We gave a guarantee under MNREGA for 100 days of work, gave the right to food (security). We gave the right to information, which as a guarantee, opened the doors of the bureaucracy. Now, a minimum income guarantee.”
Rahul also gave away symbolic loan waiver certificates to farmers from Chhattisgarh. He praised the Bhupesh Baghel-led state government for waiving short term loans of farmers worth Rs 6,000 crores from cooperative and government banks, setting the price of paddy procurement at Rs 2,500, and its decision to return land in Bastar earlier acquired for a Tata Project which failed to get off the ground. “What the BJP couldn’t do in 15 years, the Congress did in two days.”