National Disaster: Rahul Gandhi Attacks Modi as Leaked Report Reveals Ballooning Unemployment

Editor

posted on 5 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

16
views

Citing a media report on the leaked findings of the National Sample Survey Office’s Periodic Labour Force Survey, Gandhi termed the job creation report card is a “national disaster”.

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said it was time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go as he had failed to keep his 2014 promise of adding two crore jobs every year.

NoMo Jobs! The Fuhrer promised us 2 Cr jobs a year. 5 years later, his leaked job creation report card reveals a National Disaster. Unemployment is at its highest in 45 yrs. 6.5 Cr youth are jobless in 2017-18 alone. Time for NoMo2Go. #HowsTheJobs pic.twitter.com/nbX4iYmsiZ? Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 31, 2019

According to the survey findings reported by Business Standard, India is facing unprecedented unemployment of 6.1% in 2017-18. The report has not been made public with two members of the National Statistical Commission alleging that the government was delaying the data.

The two members had resigned earlier this week, following which the Congress accused the Modi government of “destroying” another institution.

Reacting to Gandhi's comment, the BJP tweeted from its official handle: "It's clear that he has inherited Mussolini's shortsightedness and has myopic understanding of issues. EPFO's real data shows sharp increase in jobs, created in just the last 15 months. Only a man who hasn't ever held a proper job & is totally jobless can peddle such."

The NSSO report was the first survey on employment by a government agency after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in November 2016. The Periodic Labour Force Survey is the first annual household survey of the National Sample Survey Office and data was collected between July 2017 and June 2018.

It showed that the unemployment rate among the youth was at a higher level compared to previous years and “much higher compared to that in the overall population”.

The rate of unemployment among men in rural areas between the ages of 15 and 29 years jumped to 17.4 percent in 2017-18 compared to 5 percent in 2011-12. The unemployment rate among women in rural areas stood at 13.6 percent in 2017-18 compared to 4.8 percent in 2011-12, according to the survey.

Unemployment among youth in urban areas was higher than in rural areas – 18.7 percent for men and 27.2 percent for women in 2017-18.

Shortly after the report went viral, #HowstheJobs shot up as the top trend on Twitter, a parody of the immensely popular ‘How’s the Josh’ punch-line from the movie Uri: The Surgical Strike. The dialogue has been used by several BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Manohar Parrikar and Smriti Irani.