New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday demanded jobs and relief for the youth amid the alleged rise in unemployment with Rahul Gandhi urging the Modi government to transfer money directly in the bank accounts of the poor, protect small and medium businesses and stop privatisation. Several senior Congress leaders urged the government to implement the Congress-proposed minimum income guarantee scheme NYAY and create job opportunities for the youth as part of its ’Speak Up for Jobs’ campaign being run on Thursday from 10 AM for 10 hours.
As part of the campaign, Gandhi also put out a video in support of the youth in which he also attacked the government over alleged job losses. He also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for remaining ”silent” on issues such as the state of the economy and China.
“Why are you silent. You should speak, you have not said anything since many days — you neither speak about the economy, nor on China. Say something, the country is looking towards you,” Gandhi said.” Before the coronavirus pandemic, I had said that a storm is going to come, prepare for it, but the government made fun of me,” he said.
Gandhi said he also gave suggestions like putting money in the bank accounts of the poor directly as recommended by the NYAY scheme, protecting and helping the small and medium enterprises, and protecting and stabilising strategic industries, but the government did not act on it. Instead lakhs of crores of loan waiver and tax break was given to PM Modi’s ”15-20 friends”, he alleged without elaborating.
The BJP has dismissed all such allegations made by Gandhi and the Congress in the past. Alleging that the economy has been ”destroyed” and the future of the youth ”spoilt”, he urged the prime minister to act and provide relief.
He said, ”1. Make a direct money transfer in the bank accounts of poor people. 2. Save the backbone by protecting the small and medium businesses and give them money. 3. stop this privatization”. Later in a tweet, Gandhi took a dig at the government, saying India is like a ship traversing the ocean with the captain staring into the rear view mirror of history.
”It’s going nowhere really fast. It won’t be long before the ship runs aground,” he said. In an earlier tweet, Gandhi alleged that the policies of the Centre have caused loss of crores of jobs and appealed to people to make the Modi government ”listen to their voice”.
”The policies of Modi Govt have caused the loss of crores of jobs and a historic fall in GDP,” Gandhi alleged in the tweet. ”It has crushed the future of India’s youth. Let’s make the Govt listen to their voice,” the former Congress chief said.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claimed that there is a ”big threat” to jobs due to ”increasing privatization, cuts in government spending and the bad economic policies of the BJP government”. ”The government has also stopped recruitment in existing jobs. We have to speak for the future of this country. I am speaking, you also speak,” she tweeted as part of the Congress’ ’speak up for jobs’ campaign.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the promise was of providing two crore jobs every year and claimed that instead of providing 12 crore jobs in six years, 14 crore jobs were ”snatched away”. The youth has now woken up and demands an answer, he said.
The Congress, on its official Twitter handle, said, ”One devastating policy after another, BJP has snatched away the livelihoods of crores of Indians & pushed our youth into a bleak future”. ”Join our #SpeakUpForJobs campaign & raise your voices against BJP’s misadventures,” the party tweeted. Videos of several party leaders were posted on Congress’ official Twitter handle in which they attacked the government over the alleged rise in unemployment and demanded jobs for the youth.
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