Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, on March 28, started the PM CARES fund, as a public trust fund. It was started after the PM’s office received requests regarding donations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Celebrities such as Akshay Kumar, Anushka Sharma, Suresh Raina and Sabyasachi Mukherjee have donated to the trust. So have corporates like the Adani Group, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Group and the Tata Group.
But, critics of the prime minister have questioned why such a fund was created, that too as a public trust fund, when the PMNRF (Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund) already exists.
Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor pointed out the lack of transparency of the PM CARES (Citizens Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) fund.
The advantage of establishing a public trust fund is that it is exempted from taxes, it can exist forever and it can run a business as long as it maintains separate books for the same. Critics including historian Ramachandra Guha have raised eyebrows over this.
“This is important. Why not simply rename PMNRF as PM-CARES, given the PM’s penchant for catchy acronyms, instead of creating a separate Public Charitable Trust whose rules & expenditure are totally opaque? @PMOIndia you owe the country an explanation for this highly unusual step,” Tharoor tweeted.
This is important. Why not simply rename PMNRF as PM-CARES, given the PM's penchant for catchy acronyms, instead of creating a separate Public Charitable Trust whose rules & expenditure are totally opaque? @PMOIndia you owe the country an explanation for this highly unusual step. https://t.co/qRhX0T1PmB
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) March 30, 2020
Tharoor retweeted the tweet by a user who goes by the handle @scotchism, showing the difference in income and spending in the PMNRF account.
The PMNRF, as per its official website has a balance of Rs 3,800.44 crore. So why start a new fund and that too at a “self-aggrandizing name”, Guha asked. “Must a colossal national tragedy also be (mis)used to enhance the cult of personality?” the historian added.
This is a very important thread. Why a new fund when a Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund already exists? And why the self-aggrandizing name, PM-CARES? Must a colossal national tragedy also be (mis)used to enhance the cult of personality? https://t.co/97NspbaVwh
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) March 29, 2020
CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury asked, “We all care about our fellow citizens and their well-being and must help in every way. Why just PM- CARES? INDIA CARES is what it should have been.”
The PMNRF was set-up in 1948 on the appeal of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and funds from the same have been disbursed during various disasters such as riots, floods, drought, earthquake, cyclone, Tsunami and so on.
