BJP Claims Job Creation Success Amid Rahul Gandhi's Criticisms

The BJP asserted that India is progressing under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, citing data to counter Rahul Gandhi's accusations of employment mismanagement. The Congress leader criticized the BJP for stifling future prospects for the youth, while the BJP highlighted achievements in job creation, sparking contention over unemployment statistics.

The BJP on Thursday asserted that India is advancing under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, leveraging government data to counter Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's claims about employment and policy issues.

The ruling party’s rebuttal follows Gandhi’s remarks, made on Wednesday, in which he argued that the country’s youth are demoralized by unemployment, blaming the BJP’s ‘anti-education mindset’ for their uncertain future.

Gandhi referenced a media report indicating a drop in IIT engineers' salaries due to hiring slowdowns. Responding at the BJP headquarters, national spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam highlighted the creation of 12.5 crore jobs over the past decade, with 5 crore jobs reportedly created in 2023-24 alone, according to the latest RBI report. The BJP attributed these achievements to Modi's leadership.

Islam accused Gandhi and opposition leaders of misleading the public with falsehoods about unemployment. He cited endorsements from global institutions like the World Bank and IMF, which affirm India’s inflation control and job creation prowess.

Conversely, the Congress, on Sunday, blamed the Modi administration for exacerbating India’s unemployment crisis, citing issues like demonetisation, a hasty GST rollout, and increased Chinese imports. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh flagged alarming data from Citigroup supporting their claims.

Islam retorted, pointing to the UPA government's lesser job creation under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He noted the unemployment rate decrease from 6% in 2017 to 3.2% recently. The RBI's report indicated nearly 4.7 crore jobs added in 2023-24, bringing the total employed to 64.33 crore over 27 sectors.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury criticized the RBI's credibility, sharing contrasting data showing a 9.2% unemployment rate in June 2024 from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).