India facing highest unemployment in 50 years: Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha

Slamming the central government over the faulty policies, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said India is facing the highest level of unemployment in 50 years under the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre.

Rahul Gandhi said, “Government speaks of providing employment. 3 crore youth lost their jobs in 2021. Today India is facing the highest unemployment in 50 years. You talk of Made-in-India, Start-Up India, but the youth did not get the employment they were supposed to. The one they had has disappeared. The government pushed 23 crore people back into poverty."

The Congress MP said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had pulled 27 crore people out of poverty in 10 years. "There was not a single word on unemployment in the President`s Address. The youth across the country is looking for jobs. The government is unable to provide them with one. They talk about `Made-in-India`. But there cannot be Made-in-India today. The matter has ended because who are the people involved in Made-in-India? Small and medium industry, unorganized sector - whom the Centre has finished. Made-in-India is not going to take place," said Rahul Gandhi while addressing Lok Sabha during the Motion of Thanks to the President`s Address.

Gandhi further slammed the government for having made huge strategic mistake in foreign policy which brought China and Pakistan together. "The single biggest strategic goal of India`s foreign policy has been to keep Pakistan and China separate. But what you have brought the two countries (Pakistan and China) together. This is the single biggest crime you have committed against the people of India," says Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha.

Criticizing the President`s address that marked the beginning of the Budget Session of the Parliament, the Wayanad MP said the speech had no strategic vision and did not touch upon the main challenges that our country is facing currently including the growing gap between the extremely rich and the poor in the country.

"Unfortunately, the President`s Address was a long list of things that the government claims to have done but did not really contain the deeper strategic issues that we would have liked to see. It did not touch a couple of central challenges facing our country."

"To me, it seemed that Presidential Address was a list of bureaucratic ideas instead of a strategic vision. It looked to me as if it has been constructed not by a vision of leadership but by a group of bureaucrats who had to simply put something down on paper," stated the Congress MP.

He further said that the Presidential Address did not mention the idea of "two Indias".

"I think there were three fundamental things that were not spoken about in the Presidential Address. First, and what I consider to be the most important, is the idea that there are now two Indias. There is now no longer one India," said Rahul Gandhi.

"One India is for the extremely rich people - for those who have immense wealth, immense power, for those who do not need a job, those who do not need water connection, electricity connections, but for those who control the heartbeat of the country. And then another India for the poor. The gap between these two Indias is widening," he added.

The 2022 Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind`s address. The first part of the budget session is being held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part will take place from March 14 to April 8.