The Election Commission pointed over NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar's remarks against the Congress' proposed minimum income scheme 'NYAY' on Friday as it violated the model code of conduct. The NYAY Scheme promises to give 72,000 rupees annually to the 20% poor families of India
In a message sent to Kumar, the EC warned him to be cautious in future while making statements while asserting that the public servants should not only be impartial in their conduct but also in their public utterances.
Apparently, Kumar had claimed on March 25th that Congress was “promising the moon” to win elections and that the scheme will “bust fiscal balance. He had added that similar to the party’s past record of promising the moon to win elections, Rahul Gandhi has announced a scheme that will bust fiscal balance, create strong incentives against work but will never be implemented.
Kumar had tweeted:
“Congress party promised #GaribiHatao in 1971, #OROP in 2008, #FoodSecurity in 2013 to win elections, but couldn’t fulfill any of those. The same unfortunate fate awaits the populist and opportunistic promise of #MinimumIncomeGuarantee.”
However, Kumar is learned to have told the Election Commission that he spoke against Congress' NYAY scheme as an economist and not as part of the policy body. The commission, in its response letter, said that it considered his reply and has not found it to be satisfactory.