The BJP government might be facing heat over the Maratha quota issue but its Ministers don’t shy away from making misleading statements. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari stated that reservation won’t guarantee employment due to dwindling job opportunities. He has said that jobs in India have shrunk due to the introduction of information technology. Gadkari added that government recruitment is frozen. His statements have come at a time when 24 lakh posts are lying vacant in the central and state government. Several vacancies remain unfilled in different departments of government sectors like teaching, defence, police force and Indian Railways.
Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “The government is completely clueless and lacks vision. Nitin Gadkari’s statement is an admission of the government for its failure to create jobs. Modi has been speaking lies to boast about government’s achievements sans data. The government is incompetent and spending Rs 5,000 crore on the advertisements. Rahul Gandhi has presented the reality of the government in the Parliament about its failure to create jobs, hastily implemented demonetisation and GST. It has also failed to avert the CBSE paper leak scam.”
According to a data compiled from answers to various questions in the Parliament revealed that more than 10 lakhs posts for teachers in the government schools remain unfilled. It also includes 9 lakh posts in elementary and 1.1 lakh posts in the secondary schools. More than 2 million plus vacancies exist in the police forces. A large number of vacancies are not filled in the centrally sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Why is the government not filling up the vacancies? Is it really bothered to resolve the unemployment issues faced by youth?
Prof. Dr. Varadraj Bapat said, “When PM Modi is speaking about employment generation, he is not only talking about government jobs but also self-employment too. The proportion of government jobs are declining and it is very difficult to get them irrespective of reservation. Qualified persons should focus on self-employment and start their own venture instead of relying on the government jobs. This government has created self-employment as compared to the erstwhile government.”
Is the government making a mockery of youth by making misleading statements? Are they playing with the lives of youth through these comments? Already youth are getting frustrated due to the rising unemployment. The problem is even severe in the rural areas where educated youth have to rely on business or agriculture to support themselves. Many of them have to migrate to metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai in the search for livelihood.
Vikrant Jog, a Kalyan resident spoke to AV and said, “Youth of our country have a tendency to search for secure jobs; instead, they should become self-employed. Indians don’t want to do hard work. I am not supporting any political party and I am in favour of development. Development has occurred in the last four years as compared to in the last 60 years. The numbers of taxpayers are increasing and tax collection has increased. We can’t expect miracles from the Modi government in a short span of time. We should focus on development agenda instead of indulging in politics.”
While campaigning for the 2014 general election, Narendra Modi had promised to create 2 crore jobs. However, four years have already passed ever since the government has come to power but it has failed to fulfil the promises made by them to the citizens. Even the opposition parties have criticised the government for its failure to generate enough employment. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh too had reminded of the promise made by the government to the youth. He said, “When PM Modi was campaigning, he made lots of tall promises, those promises have not been fulfilled. He said we will provide 2 crore jobs, we have not seen even 2 lakh jobs.”
Rahul Sawant, an unemployed youth said, “The government is making a mockery of the unemployment issue. People know how many companies survived and how many of them shut down and how many new opportunities were generated. The government might have claimed that employment has been generated but enough jobs have not been created. The government is misleading people. Two years back Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis had stated that the government lacks enough funds to disburse salaries. Now to woo voters before election they will announce mega job fair.”
With an eye on the next year’s Lok Sabha polls, the government might even promise to generate employment to lure the youth voters. However, will youth get carried away by these announcements as the government has already failed to keep its promise made prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls? The government has already asked five more years to fulfil the promises made by it. People nonetheless are unhappy with the government as it has failed to meet their expectations.
BJP spokesperson Shivray Kulkarni said, “BJP is in support of reservation. Even if reservation is granted, there are not enough jobs in proportion to it. For example, every candidate belonging to the Scheduled Caste community won’t get employment. Thus, there is a lack of enough vacancies to accommodate every candidate from backward castes. We have to adopt innovative ideas to generate jobs so Nitin Gadkari had issued a statement in this context. Problems which existed since last 60 years can’t be completely resolved in four years and people are willing to give us some more time.”
PM Modi had stated that a person earning Rs 200 a day by selling pakodas can be considered employed. He received flak from the opposition for making this statement. Former finance minister P. Chidambaram criticised Modi’s comments and said, “By that logic, even begging is a job. Let’s count poor or disabled persons who are forced to beg for a living as ‘employed’ people.” The government and opposition only indulge in the war of words over rising unemployment issue witnessed by the country but none of them take steps to resolve it.
