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Neither UPA nor NDA solved unemployment issue, says Rahul Gandhi

Opposition leader in Lok Sabha calls President's address the 'same laundry list'

Rahul Gandhi, Rahul, congress leader

Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi (Photo: PTI)

Archis Mohan New Delhi

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Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi on Monday told the Lok Sabha that successive governments, whether the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)’s or the present National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s, have been unable to tackle the issue of unemployment.
 
Participating in a debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address, Gandhi flagged how India, given the government’s reliance on increasing consumption and neglecting production, or manufacturing, is failing to keep up in the current “revolution”, or transformation across the world, from the internal combustion engine to the electric motor.
 
The Congress leader also alleged that about seven million voters, equivalent to Himachal Pradesh's population, were added to the electoral rolls in Maharashtra between the Lok Sabha and state elections, and demanded the Election Commission (EC) furnish data to opposition parties in the state.
 
 
Gandhi said the Election Commissioner used to be chosen by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the LoP, and the Chief Justice of India (CJI), but the CJI was removed from the panel by the government. “In a few days, I will be attending a meeting with Mr Amit Shah and Mr (Narendra Modi), which seems like an uneven playing field, with a 2:1 ratio. What's the point of my attendance? Am I merely there to rubber-stamp what Modi ji and Amit Shah ji say," he asked. On Sunday, the Congress set up an eight-member Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) to monitor the conduct of free and fair elections by the EC.
 
The LoP criticised the President’s address as similar to one delivered last year consisting of the same “laundry list”. He said a President’s address in a Congress, or an INDIA bloc government would focus on telling the youth how the government plans to prepare for the transformation being driven by four technologies, namely electric motors, batteries, optics, and application of artificial intelligence (AI). He said the Chinese have a 10-year lead on India in this and the President’s address should have detailed how India will start building capabilities in these areas.
 
Gandhi said an INDIA bloc government would ensure that the country’s banking sector is not captured by two or three companies, but accessible to thousands of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to encourage manufacturing. He said India’s foreign policy would take into account this “revolution” and not send the foreign minister to the United States “to get our Prime Minister invited to the US President's ‘coronation’”. Instead, the US President would come to India to attend the swearing-in of the Indian PM. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju intervened to ask Gandhi to not make unsubstantiated accusations.
 
Rebutting Gandhi’s allegations, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar accused the LoP of resorting to "falsehood". "Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi deliberately spoke a falsehood about my visit to the US in December 2024," Jaishankar said in a post on 'X'. The EAM said he visited the US to meet then Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NSA Jake Sullivan as well as to chair a meeting of India's Consuls General. "At no stage was an invitation in respect of the PM discussed. It is common knowledge that our PM does not attend such events. In fact, India is generally represented by Special Envoys," Jaishankar said.
 
"Rahul Gandhi's lies may be intended politically. But they damage the nation abroad," he added.
 
The EAM paid a six-day visit to the US from December 24 to 29. It was the first high-level trip from India to Washington after Trump won the US presidential election. In January, Jaishankar represented India at the inauguration of Trump as the 47th President of the United States.
 
On the issue of jobs, Gandhi said: “A universal problem that we have faced is that we have not been able to tackle the problem of unemployment, neither the UPA government nor today’s NDA government has given a clear-cut answer to the youth of India about employment. I don’t think anybody in this room will disagree with me.”
 
Gandhi said the share of manufacturing has dropped from 15.3 per cent to 12.6 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the lowest in 60 years. He said he wouldn’t like to blame the PM for it since it wouldn’t be fair to say that he didn’t try. “I say he tried,” Gandhi said, adding that “Make in India” was a good idea, but the Prime Minister "pretty much failed".
 
The LoP said every government since 1990 “has done a decent job of organising consumption”, and cited examples of companies such as Uber, Reliance, and the Adani group, which organise consumption well. He named the Mahindra group, Bajaj, and Tatas as companies that organise production, but said that “as a country our record in organising production is dismal”.
 
The Congress leader said India has “handed over the job of organising production to the Chinese”, pointing to his mobile phone as an example of it being assembled in India but made in China. Gandhi said the reason China is sitting inside India is because 'Make in India' has failed and India is refusing to produce. "I am worried that India is going to give up this revolution to the Chinese once again," he said, adding that social tensions were on the rise because of joblessness. The PM was present in the House.
 
Gandhi said the last time a technological revolution of this nature took place, the Congress government at the time was prepared and decided to focus on software production, and as a result India “rode the wave” of that revolution despite detractors. He said the country’s youth should be informed that the war in Ukraine is one between the internal combustion engines, or tanks, and drones, in which tanks are being decimated by thousands.
 
In the Rajya Sabha, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the LoP in the House, paid tribute to the "thousands" who died in the January 29 Maha Kumbh stampede, triggering an uproar from the treasury benches even as Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked him to retract the statement. Kharge said, “This is my estimate (and) if this is not right you (the government) should tell what the truth is.”
 
"I did not say 'thousands' to blame anyone. But how many people died, give that information at least. I will apologise if I am wrong. They should give figures how many died, how many are missing," he said.
 
According to the figures provided by the Uttar Pradesh government, 30 people were killed and 60 others injured. In the Lok Sabha, Opposition MPs accused the government of negligence and insensitivity, and called for accountability into the stampede. 

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First Published: Feb 03 2025 | 10:14 PM IST

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