Spokesperson: Ms. Supriya Shrinate: She said- We wish India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji an extremely Happy Birthday on his 72nd birthday and we hope and pray that God keeps him healthy and gives him a long life.

Birthdays of Indian Prime Ministers have always been celebrated as special days. Given his love for children, Nehru Ji’s birthday was marked as ‘Children’s Day’, Indira Ji’s birthday was celebrated as ‘Communal Harmony Day’ and Rajiv Gandhi Ji’s birthday was celebrated as ‘Sadbhavna Diwas’. In fact, even Atal Ji’s birthday in December is celebrated as ‘Good Governance Day’, which is why it worries me and it pains me that Mr. Modi’s birthday is being celebrated by the youth of this country as the ‘National Unemployment Day’.

This is a huge cause of concern, because India is the youngest country in the world with the maximum number of youths here in our country and so it is a very worrying thing that 60 per cent of people in the working age population are either unemployed or not looking for work. In fact, in the 20-24 years age group, 42 per cent youth are unemployed. If this is not a worrying situation, I wonder what is and know the Prime Minister can neither hide behind Covid, nor behind the Russia- Ukraine war, because unemployment peaked at a 45-year high even before the first case of Covid was reported and the latest unemployment rate of 8.3 per cent is a hugely worrying thing for our economy and for our population.

Mr. Modi had made very tall promises about 2 crore annual jobs. Instead, in the last 8 years, he has employed only 7 lakh people. There were 22 crore people who applied for jobs, but only 7 lakh people have been given employment. In fact, this is a body blow because it affects women the most, their participation in the labour market has come down from 26 per cent to 15 per cent and it is also a double whammy because this is coming on back of high prices and no wages. Does Mr. Modi not worry about it- certainly he does. He does care about the employment of only one man, and i.e. Amit Shah’s son, Shri Jay Shah, who was appointed as secretary in BCCI in 2019, his turn would have ended this year, but, instead, BCCI is amending its Constitution to give him employment for another 3 years. In contrast, your children will be given employment only for 4 years and be made to retire at a young age of 23.

Why is it that there are no national debates and the government does not want to discuss this important issue? Each time you mention unemployment and price rise, they want to talk about unnecessary, irrelevant, distracting issues and they promote disinformation.

We have specific questions for Mr. Modi:

1.  Where are the 2 crore annual jobs?

2.  Why are 60 lakh jobs in the Centre and the State Governments lying vacant?

3.  Why is it that MSMEs that employ the maximum number of people are at the receiving end of your flawed policies?

4.  Why is it that despite praising you in public, private sector is not willing to invest and hence jobs are not being created?

5.  And last, but not the least, why have you come up with the conspiracy to employ our youth only for 4 years and then retire them at a young age of 23?

Modi Ji, you still have 2 years left in your tenure and I will only gently and humbly remind you that men in history are not remembered by the monuments that they build, but by the work that they do for our people.

Please go ahead and generate more employment and most of all go ahead and at least, begin to talk about unemployment and price rise. Saturday, September 17, 2022