New Delhi, Mar 20 : In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of jobs, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that his policies destroyed one crore jobs last year and said “India’s PM is a joke”.
Gandhi’s criticism of Modi came over a media report which claimed that the actual size of India’s male workforce, or men who are working, has shrunk for the first time since 1993-94.
“I thought India was producing 450 jobs a day. Turns out Modi’s policies destroyed 1 crore jobs in 2018. That’s 27,000 jobs lost every single day of 2018. India’s PM is a joke,” he tweeted.
Addressing a rally in Manipur earlier in the day, Gandhi said: “In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi destroyed one crore jobs in the country. This is the scale of his incompetence. It is absurd and ridiculous that the PM promises giving two crore jobs.”
Slamming the government over the issue of “job losses”, Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the country’s “chowkidar” is responsible for “stealing” jobs with 4.7 crore youth losing employment.
“Modi ji has eaten up 4.7 crore jobs of the youth. Due to the BJP’s ‘pan-pakoda’ policy, 4.7 crore youth had to wash their hands of their jobs,” he said.
“Promise was to give 10 crore jobs, but 4.7 crore jobs have been taken away. The country’s chowkidar is responsible for stealing jobs,” Surjewala said with the hashtag “Chowkidar Chor Hai”.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “dynastic politics” attack on the Congress, saying the PM himself comes from the Sangh Parivar without whose blessings no one in the country can occupy any public position.
He said the prime minister should introspect and instead of talking about dynastic politics, should focus on issues confronting people.
“What is the PM talking about? No one in the BJP can occupy any public position without the support of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh). The Sangh Parivar is the biggest parivar in the world. Without their blessings no one can hold any public position in the country, be it the position of a PM, a minister, governor or chief ministers,” Sibal told PTI.
Sibal’s remarks came in response to Prime Minister Modi’s attack on the grand old party in a blog published earlier Wednesday.
Modi urged people to think wisely before casting vote, saying that from the press to Parliament, from soldiers to free speech, from the Constitution to the courts, “institutional insult is the Congress way”.
“India has seen that whenever dynastic politics has been powerful, institutions have taken a severe beating,” he said.
Reacting to the remarks, Sibal asked the prime minister to look within and focus on addressing the issues concerning the country — such as farm crisis, joblessness, shortage of drinking water, education, health and pollution challenges.
“Is the PM so busy in the campaign that he has forgotten all about the people of India. He’s only worried about dynasty,” the former HRD minister said.
Sibal added that there is no one in the BJP, barring a few, who have not come from the RSS background. The prime minister, governors, chief ministers and ministers all belong to the RSS.
He also alleged that about 2 crore jobs were lost since Modi came to power, citing a National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data.
He said the national male workforce had shrunk from 30.4 crore in 2011-12 to 28.6 crore in 2017-18.
