Clearly, the Congress is anti-poor. Kapil Sibal is playing a spoiler's game, depriving millions of poor people the financial help they desperately need. Why should right-thinking people vote Congress? As this is being written, Sibal is threatening to approach the Election Commission to block a sagacious scheme to help the poor. The scheme was conceived in the innovative mind of our beloved labour minister, Sahib Singh Verma.
In January, the government passed a law to provide social security and pension to unorganised labour. With the blessings of the labour minister, the BJP printed millions of application forms replicating the official ones. The forms had the government's as well as the BJP's name on it.
Speaking on TV, Verma denied any impropriety. He said the party had a right to propagate the "good work done by the government". To apply, workers would have to deposit Rs 650 along with each form. The minister clarified that applicants could collect the money "from anywhere".
The forms, as printed by the BJP, would now be unacceptable to the ministry. The information would have to be refilled in proper official forms provided by the government. The BJP leaders know this. But once daily-wage workers complete formalities for submitting forms, attaching ration cards etc, party workers could go door-to-door and help the applicants refill the data in proper official forms.
As I understand, this is how the scheme could work. As things are, the election expenses incurred by each candidate works out to Rs 1.25 crore according to Zee TV and Rs 2 crore according to ndtv.
If one lakh applicants per constituency were paid Rs 650 each, the extra burden for helping each candidate would be Rs 6.5 crore. Since each applicant would necessarily need a ration card, he would presumably also be a registered voter. If one lakh voters were added to a candidate's tally in 100 constituencies, the extra cost would be Rs 650 crore. Thus, if an extra Rs 650 crore were arranged through altruistic sympathisers of this wonderful pro-poor enterprise, our beloved labour minister could reasonably assure an extra hundred LS seats to his party. Most important, millions of daily-wage workers would have been assured security in times of need. Rs 650 crore, of course, is peanuts in a rich nation like India. Here a single wedding reception can cost over Rs 100 crore.
Kapil Sibal and Congress are opposing Verma's wonderful scheme. After that, how can anyone vote for the Congress?
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)
