Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

Covid economic proposal stokes controvers­y

- Rajeev Jayaswal letters@hindustant­imes.com

NEWDELHI:A group of economists, intellectu­als and activists on Saturday redrafted their seven-point ‘Mission Jai Hind’ proposal to deal with the Covid-19 crisis after one of their suggestion­s of treating all resources of the nation and its citizens -- cash, real estate, property and bonds -- as national resources triggered a controvers­y. Some of the plan’s signatorie­s also opposed the idea.

The controvers­ial part was changed to say the government “must explore emergency ways of raising resources going beyond the usual set of taxes and levies to cope with the problem of funding large relief packages”.

The group has also proposed universal access to ration, free health care, employment guarantee, compensati­on for job losses, a moratorium on interest payments, and transporta­tion of stranded migrants to their homes.Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav, who is one of the signatorie­s of the plan, said the contentiou­s clause 7.1 has attracted undue attention and interprete­d to mean a call for nationalis­ation/expropriat­ion of private property.

He called this far from their intention while hoping the focus will remain on the plan outlined to “address health, economic & humanitari­an crisis”.

In a series of tweets, historian Ramachandr­a Guha, another signatory, said he did not endorse the clause 7.1. “The Mission Jai Hind Statement that was sent to me had this broad statement of principle as clause 7.1, which I approved, namely: ‘All resources within the nation are national resources, available for this mission’,” he tweeted.

“The published version had a radically different clause 7.1: ‘All the resources (cash, real estate, property, bonds, etc) with the citizens or within the nation must be treated as national resources available during this crisis.’ I have not and do not endorse this.”

“This clause, that has become deeply tendentiou­s with the major changes made without the consent of some signatorie­s, has taken attention away from the many sensible suggestion­s made in the Statement,” Guha added.

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