On Friday, the Union Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman will get a chance to take a walk down the memory lane. A PhD holder in Economics from the prestigious London School of Economics, Sitharaman will be sent Economics textbooks and guides by a number of students from colleges and universities across Delhi on September 27.
Organised by the CPI(ML) affiliated student political organisation AISA, the move is a symbolic protest against the current economic slowdown that the country is facing. "Students and young people from all over Delhi will be sending Economics books to the minister, in a bid to show that she has lost complete touch with basic economics," says Kawalpreet Kaur, AISA Delhi President. "Right now we are facing a massive job loss and the country is in the middle of a terrible crisis. But rather than giving the people more purchasing power, the ministry has given concession to corporate houses. This isn't what you're supposed to do," she says.
The AISA activists are planning to collect the textbooks from the students and send them to the minister via a delegation that is supposed to meet her on the same day. "If she refuses to meet her, we'll leave the books at her office. People are free to give any economics book of their choice," says Kawalpreet.
Sitharaman, who initially denied an economic slowdown, later went on to say that the automobile industry is in crisis because millennials are dependent on Ola and Uber. Further, the government reduced the corporate tax rate for manufacturing companies. "People in this country find it difficult to avoid a small packet of Parle G biscuits. Instead of doing something about it, they are again giving tax concessions to the super-rich. Most of these companies do not need this concession," says Kawalpreet. "Again, this is a symbolic protest. We're trying to remind her that she isn't doing what she's supposed to do," she says.
