Cong launching social media campaign today

NEW DELHI, My 27: In the memory of late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's 56th death anniversary, the Congress on Wednesday announced a nationwide "Speak Up India" online social campaign on Thursday from 11 AM to 2 PM on all platforms like facebook, twitter, youtube and whatsapp to raise the voice of people on the economic disaster inflicted by the Modi government through the Lockdowns in the wake of the coronavirus.
Party spokesman Ajay Maken told a Press conference here that the campaign is in honour of crores of the migrant labourers who came from the villages to build our cities as also to raise the voice of small, medium, cottage industries and retail traders and express concern over the sword of unemployment hanging on the wage earners.
He said the poor are always hit hard by a natural calamity and so th "Speak up India" is for all those living below the poverty line. He said the Congress will reiterate its demands pending before the government to let all migrant workers be reached their villages with respect, without extracting fare, give immediate relief of Rs 10,000 to every poor family and give them relief of Rs 7500 per month for the next six months, starting with an immediate release of Rs 10,000.
Maken said small, medium, cottage industries and retailers deserve immediate financial help, not loan offered by the government, as they have to pay wages, pay rent and electricity bills and resurrect their business totally ruined by over two months of the lockdown.
Congress Social Media department chief Rohan Gupta said the Congress has been continuously pleading for giving cash to the people as the only remedy to revive the economy as it would create the demand and therefore the campaign on Thursday to let crores of the party workers raise the issue through messages by going live on all social media.
In reply to a question, Maken said the campaign will also convey to the people that the reality is different from what the government is claiming. He said the campaign will not be a monologue but a dialogue to hear the problems of the people as it would lead to an interaction which has been already initiated by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
He said the people baffled by getting nothing from the government's "Jumla" package of Rs 20 lakh crore would be educated that the government was cheating them by giving loan instead of relief. All want cash package to run their life. In reply to another question, Maken said the "Speak up India" campaign is for all to speak up.
When told that the social media campaign is useless for the poor and the migrants who are not tech-savvy, he said: "Our campgin's name is not "speak up migrant population" but it is "Speak up India" for migrants, "Speak up India" for poor, "Speak up India" for middle class, "Speak up India" for small traders, for MSME and "Speak up India" for all such people.
Asked about Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accusing Rahul Gandhi at a press conference earlier in the day of weakening the fight against the coronavirus by claiming that the lockdowns won't solve the problem, Maken said perhaps Prasad did not properly listen to Rahul as the fact is that Rahul has played the role of a constructive opposition, never criticising the government in the present crisis but provided only positive suggestions. If the lockdowns were really successful, then why this spurt in the virus. "You started the lockdown when the virus infection was very little and you now want to end the lockdown when the infection is rising every single day," he asked, pointing out that implementation of the lockdowns has been done in a knee-jerk fashion, without any preparation.