The Congress has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Tuesday evening address in which he announced a Rs 20 lakh crore package, terming the speech as “only gave a headline to media”.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday took a jibe at the economic package and “Self-reliant India Mission” announced by PM Modi, as being nothing new but a repackaged version of “Make in India” initiative.

He tweeted a Hindi couplet to express his views on the subject.

The couplet roughly translates to: “He sold the old couplet/lion with a new name; He sold piles of dreams again.”

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in a tweet today slammed the Prime Minister’s Rs 20 lakh core package announcement to help the economy amid the Coronavirus crisis.

Calling the move “Maximum Packaging, Minimum Meaning”, he said, “It was a case of classic NAMO. No Action Messaging Only.”

Earlier former finance minister P Chidambaram described PM Modi’s announcement as a “headline and a blank page”. He also went on to say that the thing to be examined in the announcement would be ‘who gets what’.

In a big push to revive the economy, PM Modi on Tuesday announced a whopping package of Rs 20 lakh crore, which includes measures already announced by the government and the RBI so far to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. The amount is nearly 10 per cent of India’s GDP.

Addressing the nation for the third time during the lockdown, the Prime Minister said that it is now the time to make India self-reliant in every way.

He said that the special economic package would be the primary component of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)”.

PM Modi also talked about new infrastructure and systems for a quantum leap of growth.

Shortly after the address, the Congress on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his absence of empathy towards migrants.

Congress Chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, in a statement, said: “What you said today gives the country and the media a HEADLINE.

“When the ‘blank page’ is filled with ‘Heartfelt Help of People’, the Nation & Congress Party will respond,” he added.