"Heartless Government": P Chidambaram Seeks Free Food, Cash For Poor

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today accused the government of failing to "protect the dignity" of the poor who have been rendered jobless and left hungry following the lockdown imposed by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus.

In a series of tweets, the former Finance Minister said more and more people have run out of cash and are standing in queues for free cooked food, and urged the government to transfer cash and distribute free foodgrains to the poor, saying only a "heartless government" will not do anything.

"There is overwhelming evidence that more and more people have run out of cash and are forced to stand in lines to collect free cooked food. Only a heartless government will stand by and do nothing," Mr Chidambaram tweeted this morning.

Tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Mr Chidambaram tweeted two "economic and moral" questions which, according to him, the government has failed to answer.

While the first question targeted the government over its inability to transfer money to every poor family, the second question accused the government of not using the food grain stored in godowns belonging to Food Corporation of India (FCI) to feed the poor.

"Why cannot government save them from hunger AND protect their dignity by transferring cash to every poor family? Why can't government distribute, free of cost, a small part of the 77 million tonnes of grain with FCI to families who need the grain to feed themselves?," he tweeted.

Thousands of migrant workers have been stranded at various state borders in the country while seeking to reach their homes in villages, creating law and order situations at some places. 

Mr Chidambaram has been highly critical of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic which has infected over 15,000 people and left over 500 dead in the country.

"Cry, my beloved country," he had tweeted minutes after PM Modi announced the extension of the current lockdown to May 3.

The senior Congress leader has also accused the government of not heeding to the advice of experts like former RBI chief Raghuram Rajan, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee , Jean Dreze and Prabhat Patnaik to fix the economy.