Rahul Gandhi on Monday suggested that the BJP government was “destroying” the informal sector of the economy to facilitate a takeover by the big corporate and counted the lockdown as part of that scheme, alleging an attempt to push people into “slavery”.

While the former Congress president listed demonetisation and the imposition of a flawed Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the two major assaults, he made a grave accusation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying that the harsh lockdown during the pandemic was also a part of the design to destroy the informal sector, which makes up the overwhelming majority of the Indian economy.

Although Rahul has often accused Modi of deliberately harming the informal sector, claiming that the lockdown, which not only destroyed the small industries and traders but also subjected millions to extreme hardship, was intended to help the big corporate is bound to trigger a political confrontation.

In a video released on Monday morning, Rahul said: “The BJP government has been attacking the informal sector over the past six years. I can give you three big examples right now — demonetisation, wrong GST and lockdown. Don’t presume that there was no thinking behind the lockdown. Don’t think it was done at the last minute. The aim of these three decisions was to destroy our informal sector.”

Modi announced the lockdown on March 24 and the restrictions kicked in within just four hours.

The Congress has repeatedly attacked the Prime Minister for the “unplanned” lockdown but the allegation that it was enforced to devastate the informal sector gives an entirely new dimension to the campaign that the government mismanaged the pandemic.

Rahul said on Monday: “The Prime Minister needs the media and marketing to run the government. This media management and marketing is done by 15-20 people. The informal sector has a lot of money, lakhs of crores, which the government can’t touch. They want to break this sector and take away this money. The effects of this attack on the informal sector will be seen soon. The results will be that India won’t be able to produce jobs. Because the informal sector produces 90 per cent of the jobs. Once the informal sector is destroyed, India won’t be able to produce jobs.”

The Congress parliamentarian added: “You (the common people) are the ones who run this country, you take us forward and there is a conspiracy being hatched against you. Aapko thaga ja raha hai aur aapko ghulam banane ki koshish ki ja rahi hai (You are being cheated and there is an attempt to turn you into slaves). We have to understand this attack and the entire country has to unite to fight against this.”

Explaining how the Indian economy had survived the 2008 global meltdown but had got wrecked under Modi, Rahul said on Monday: “In 2008, the world was hit by an economic storm. It affected the entire world: US, Japan, China, everywhere. In the US, banks fell, corporations fell and companies shut down. In Europe also, banks fell, but India was unaffected. India had a UPA government at that time.

“I went to the Prime Minister and asked him, Manmohan Singh ji, what is the reason the entire world suffered an economic crisis but India remained unaffected? Manmohan Singh ji replied, ‘Rahul if you want to understand India’s economy, you will have to understand that India has two economic structures. One is the formal economy and the other is the informal economy.’”

Rahul added: “You know the big companies which constitute the formal sector. The informal sector comprises farmers, labourers, small and medium industries, small traders. Till the time India’s informal sector is strong, no economic storm can touch India.”