New Delhi: The Congress on Monday released a booklet to mark Narendra Modi’s 11 years at the Centre, highlighting stagnated growth rate, rising hunger, and his “unfulfilled promises”.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a post on X said that the booklet, ’11 Saal, Jhoothe Vikaas ke vade’, commemorates “some of the biggest lies of this Government.”
Addressing a press conference, AICC research department head Rajeev Gowda, who prepared the booklet, alleged, “This government is very good at fake news and propaganda. It is our job as the Opposition to get people to know this grim reality.”
He said that to expose the BJP’s on its promises the party was releasing two sets of documents.
The booklet, ‘Ek Aur Baar Jumla Sarkar’, he said, looks at the promises made by the BJP in its 2024 manifesto, and has since made.
The other one, he said, is ’11 Saal Jhoote Vikaas Ke Vaade’, which is a “detailed exposé” of the “hollow promises” of the BJP.
“In the 11-Saal document, one of the first themes that they (BJP) highlight is taking care of the poor and the marginalised. They are very happy that 81 crore people are getting free food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). But the basic problem of hunger is a much larger crisis in India, and it puts us at 105th out of 127 countries in the World Hunger Index.
“Its implications: malnutrition is affecting our children in a horrible way, crippling their growth. Stunting is at 35.5 percent; Wasting is at 19.3 per cent; Underweight is at 32.1 per cent,” Gowda said.
He said that nearly a third of Indian children are suffering from malnutrition, even as the BJP insists on Viksit Bharat.
“Let’s remind our PM that he has a duty to our children and their future. They (BJP) claim that they have created 4 times the Eklavya residential schools since 2014. They have announced 700+ schools, out of which 300 are still non-functional. Is it rocket science to set up and run a school?” he wondered.
The Congress leader also alleged that the Centre’s claim that India added over 5,000 defence items to the indigenisation list was also not true.
“Sadly, 40 per cent of the items listed for indigenisation have not been indigenized as of now. India remains one of the top importers of defence rather than a producer and exporter.
“If you look at ‘mission mode DRDO projects’, 23 out of 55 have been delayed, and the share of R&D in our defence budget is only 5.45 per cent,” he said.
Neither is the claim that India was the fastest-growing large economy was true, he said.
“This is true, but what rate are we growing? Are we able to encash our demographic dividend? Any economist will tell you that if we grow below 8.5 per cent a year, we are sacrificing the future of crores and crores of our youngsters because we will not have enough growth, jobs and opportunities that are required to just fulfil the target—the great jumla — 2 crores jobs per year,” he claimed.
He said India’s growth is 6.5 per cent over the last year, which is the lowest rate after the COVID period.
“So, what is happening in this 11th year of your Sarkaar, PM Modi? What is happening is reflected in the response of the private sector. Is the Indian private sector investing in India? If you look at the investment figures, after you have given the bonanza tax cut, nothing has changed. They still don’t have confidence in the management of your economy to invest,” the Congress leader said.
He said the fixed capital formation has come down to 32.4 per cent, which was an 11-year low.
“There is another legacy: the glaring inequality. The share of wealth in India’s top 1 per cent of people is 40 per cent. And the bottom 50 percent have to make do with just over 3 percent,” the former Congress MP said, adding that this is not the economy the country wants.
Gowda said that at top universities, 5,000 teaching posts were vacant as of November 2024 and 35 per cent of faculty posts at AIIMS-Delhi and the new AIIMS had over 40 per cent faculty vacancy.
He sought to blow a hole also into the Centre’s UDAN Scheme and the ease of living standards for middle-class India in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
“More than 50 per cent of approved routes never took off by 2023. Of the 619 routes under the UDAN Scheme, only 323 are operational. After Rs 4,500 crore spent, UDAN is still struggling to fly,” he said.
Gowda said 142 crore trees were planted under the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’, but the highest tree cover loss has been recorded under the BJP government.
Congress leader Mahima Singh said in the last 11 years there have been only ‘jumlas’.
She said though the BJP claimed that the government distributed Rs 3.7 lakh crore to PM Kisan beneficiaries,between April 2022 and November 2023, about 2.25 crore beneficiaries were removed from the list.
