New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday slammed the BJP government for not creating enough jobs in the country. Admitting - in a way - that the Congress-led UPA government may not have done enough either, he said the period before the current government was still better than the present.
Speaking in Vadodara, Rahul said that while he admits even UPA government did not focus as much as required on small and medium businesses, the current dispensation is at an extreme. "Our (UPA) record was better than theirs (NDA) but even we were five on ten. The current government though is providing 450 jobs every 24 hours even though 30,000 youths enter job market daily," he said, adding that China was providing 50,000 jobs to its citizens each day. "If we do not provide 30,000 to 40,000 jobs daily to our young in the next five to 10 years, no one would be able to control the anger that will spread."
Rahul also took a jibe at the current leadership and said focus on long-term goals should be given priority. "A leader's job is to look five, ten years ahead and not implementing things forcibly that will make people cry." He then went on to train his guns on how innovation is being strangulated in the country. "Our system is of killing innovation. Bureaucracy kills it. Home Ministry kills it. You try to do something and 50 people pull you back."
The 47-year-old then went on to highlight the rising prices of fuel. "The petrol prices form the basis of inflation. During the UPA era, the crude oil rate soared as high as $140 per barrel. Now, the rate is $50 per barrel. Still, the price of petrol and diesel is not being reduced,” he said.
India's economy - Asia's third largest - has cooled rapidly over five consecutive quarters as small and -medium-sized businesses across India report tumbling sales, undermining job creation and damaging sentiment in industries crucial to Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s political powerbase. A Reuters report recently quoted two senior finance ministry officials as saying that the government now is considering spending between 400 to 500 billion rupees ($7.7 billion) more this financial year than it had budgeted for.
The opposition though is leaving no stone unturned in keeping the pressure up on the government.
