PM Modi's data on job creation 'assumption based': Owaisi

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's data on job creation in the country as "assumption based".

Speaking to ANI, Owaisi said that the Prime Minister and his government are well aware of the fact that they failed in their promise to provide jobs. "The government has failed to provide jobs to the youth, and they have to bear the consequences of the same in the upcoming elections," Owaisi further accused Prime Minister Modi of having failed to fulfill the promises made during the 2014 general elections.

Owaisi's remark came after Prime Minister Modi on Saturday dispelled the Opposition's allegations about lack of job growth, saying India is among the major economies of the world. In an exclusive interview to ANI, Prime Minister Modi said, "When the economy is growing at a faster pace, in fact, fastest among the major economies, how will the job market not expand?"

Prime Minister Modi had further added, "Employment generation is also evident from 45 lakh new Subscribers in the Employee Provident Fund and 5.68 lakh people joining the New Pension Scheme in the last nine months. All this has led to creation of more than one crore jobs, only in the last year. Thus, the campaign that jobs have not been created must come to a halt now. People are not going to buy it anymore."

On the Prime Minister's statement on Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft, Owaisi asserted that "The BJP president refers to people as intruders, and the Prime Minister said that no Indian citizen will be made to leave the country over the NRC list. Their only motive is to create hatred."

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja criticised the Prime Minister on his statement on mob lynching where he said that the Opposition should not politicise the matter and ensure that the society remained integrated. The CPI leader while speaking to ANI said that instead of preaching, the Prime Minister should take some action in this regard.

"If Prime minister is really concerned about mob lynching he should ask the state government to take action on the same. This is not the time to listen to the preaching of the prime minister; we want him to act,' Raja said.