Stepping up attack on the BJP government, Congress on Thursday marked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 70th birthday as ‘National Unemployment Day’.
“Massive unemployment has forced the youth to call today #NationalUnemploymentDay. Employment is dignity. For how long will the govt deny it?” former Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter.
AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra kick-started a dialogue with the youth on the issue of employment, seeking to reach out to the section of voters who had supported Modi overwhelmingly in the 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In her interaction with youth who had enrolled for appointment as teachers in government schools, Priyanka assured them that a Congress government would stop the recruitment of teachers on contract, if elected to power.
“The youth had pinned huge hopes on the Prime Minister. But, the prime minister has shattered the hopes of the youth,” senior Congress leader Mohan Prakash said.
Youth Congress activists carried out a nationwide campaign by taking out protest marches and unfurling huge banners demanding jobs and commemorating Modi’s birthday as ‘National Unemployment Day’.
Congress had launched the ‘Rozgar Do’ campaign on last month to highlight growing unemployment under the Modi government.
Rahul had recalled that in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Modi had promised to create two crore new jobs every year.
The former Congress President claimed that India had lost 14 crore jobs due to the "faulty" policies pursued by the Modi government.
He claimed that the unemployment crisis in the country was due to policies such as demonetisation, wrong GST implementation and the lockdown to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
“These three together destroyed the economic structure of the country,” Rahul had said.