The past week was all about Narendra Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan economic package. The overall package consists of three primary components – a set of measures taken by the government before Modi’s speech on May 12, the Reserve Bank of India’s liquidity measures over the last two months and the five tranches announced by Nirmala Sitharaman over the last few days. However, the whopping package still has left a lot of questions unanswered which even the finance minister seem to be clueless.
Even though the announcements made are worth over Rs 20 lakh crore the Finance Minister's inability to answer on loan moratorium for salaried middle-class as part of the government’s measures to tackle the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is a bit worrying. During Nirmala Sitharaman's interaction with the media on the economic package, a journalist from Zee Business asked Sitharaman if there would be an extension on the loan moratorium period announced earlier for the salaried middle-class as part of the government’s measures to tackle the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy. “They are expecting some tax relief measures too,” the journalist added. Sitharaman had a shocking reply: “Theek hai.” and the press conference ended. The video soon went viral and the Finance Minister's answer to the question has left a lot be decided.