Answer to crisis is to put money in hands of people: Chidambaram on govt package
New Delhi: A day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a package to support the pandemic-hit economy, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the answer to this "crisis" is to spur demand by putting money in the hands of the people, especially the poor and the lower middle classes.
Sitharaman on Monday announced Rs 1.5 lakh crore of additional credit for small and medium businesses, more funds for the healthcare sector, loans to tourism agencies and guides, and waiver of visa fee for foreign tourists as part of a package to support the pandemic-hit economy.
Reacting to the development, Chidambaram said, "Some elementary truths: Credit guarantee is not credit. Credit is more debt. No banker will lend to a debt-ridden business."
Debt-burdened or cash-starved businesses do not want more credit, they need non-credit capital, the former finance minister said in a series of tweets.
"More supply does not mean more demand (consumption). On the contrary, more demand (consumption) will trigger more supply," he said.
Demand will not grow in an economy where jobs have been lost and incomes or wages have been reduced, Chidambaram argued.
"The answer to this crisis is to put money in the hands of the people, especially the poor and lower middle classes," he said.
The Congress had on Monday claimed that the measures announced by the Finance Minister "delivered nothing but headlines" and said the government should take steps to spur demand to revive the economy "which continues to be in the doldrums".
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Four booked for tying 18-year-old to tree, beating him up in UP's Pratapgarh
Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Four people were booked here for the abduction and assault of a man who they allegedly tied to a tree and beat up, police said on Wednesday.
The incident, a video of which has gone viral, took place on Tuesday afternoon under the Kunda police station limits.
The FIR was registered on Wednesday evening based on a complaint from the victim's father.
According to Keshav Prasad Yadav, a resident of Mauli village, some people called his 18-year-old son Nikhil Yadav on the phone and asked him to come out of his house around 2.30 pm on Tuesday.
As he reached outside the village as instructed, the accused allegedly forced him into a car and took him towards the Tinpedwa forest area, where they tied him to a tree and assaulted, the complainant said.
The attackers also recorded a video of the incident and circulated it on social media. The purported video shows the men thrashing Nikhil one after another, while one of them is assumed to have recorded the act.
Kunda Station House Officer Manoj Pandey confirmed the incident and said efforts are underway to identify and arrest all the accused.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has shared the video on social media, describing the incident as reflective of a "dominant mindset" against the PDA (Pichda or Backward, Dalit, and Alpasankhyak or Minority), and demanded strict action against the accused.
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