BJP Govt not addressing rising unemployment, sinking economy: Azad

Hyderabad: Congress senior leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad has accused the BJP Government at the Centre was not addressing the issue of rising unemployment, deteriorating conditions of country's economy and other core issues.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday, Azad informed that the Congress party leaders were doing press conference on major issues across the country covering all 650 districts to expose the failures of BJP Government on the economic front. Agitation will be done at all district headquarters from today onwards till November 15. There will be a big meeting at the national level in the month of December. Ever since Narender Modi was declared Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP in December 2013, he made several promises with poor, farmers, educated youth, women, labourers and other sections. However, despite being in power at the Centre for the last six years and having the government in the majority of States, BJP Governments have failed miserably in fulfilling those promises. He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi was personally monitoring the agitation by getting feedback from all district headquarters.

One of the major promises was for bringing back black money stashed in foreign countries and its distribution among people by depositing Rs. 15 lakh in each account. Crores of people have opened their accounts for those Rs. 15 lakh, but nothing came to them. Modi had also promised to create 10 crore jobs in 5 years. But not even 50 lakh jobs were created. Farmers were promised MSP MSP to 50 per cent of agriculture input cost. But it remained unimplemented. The assurance of protection and safety of women too remain unfulfilled. 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' remained a slogan, he said.

Stating that joblessness and unemployment were today the most important issues before the nation, Azad said that the rate of unemployment was highest in the last 46 years as pointed out by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). He said despite downplaying the numbers which were leaked during the election campaign, the Centre finally accepted the NSSO figures after Lok Sabha elections. Similarly, he said that the Centre for Monitoring of India Economy (CMIE) pointed out that the unemployment rate was 18.19% in August 2019 and it was still rising. He said that the unemployment rate in India was almost double than the world average. While the global unemployment rate, as per the International Labour Organisation, stood at 4.5%, India's rate was nearly 8.5% which is a matter of serious concern.

Azad said that the rate of unemployment among educated was higher. He said the unemployment rate of Graduates, PGs and PHDs was higher than less educated youth. As against the average rate of 8.5%, the unemployment rate among highly educated youth was over 15%. This is an alarming situation and raises several questions regarding the future of the young generation, he said.

The Congress leader urged the Central Government to wake up from slumber and create employment opportunities for the youth in coordination with the State Governments.

Speaking about the economy, Azad said that it was 'sinking' and the conditions were extremely bad. "The GDP growth rate during our regime was nearly 10% and its average in a decade was 8.5%. "After BJP came to power, it used a different formula to measure GDP growth. Even then, the growth is mere 5% while according to our calculations is just 2.5%. They question us as to what we did in the last 70 years. While we took the GDP growth to over 10%, you brought it down to 5% in just six years," he said adding that all international agencies including International Monetary Fund and World Bank have predicted fall in India's GDP growth rate. He said the Indian economy has slipped to 7th position from 5th at the global level.

"Private investment is lowest in 16 years; Industrial growth was just 1.1% in August which was lowest in 7 years; Manufacturing sector growth rate was negative touching (-) 1.2% which is lowest after October 2014. For the first time in six years, the growth rate in all core sectors has touched a low in the last four years. Exports have fallen down. Capital goods and surplus were in negative. Sale of passenger vehicles has dropped by 23.7% and even FMCG sales have reduced significantly as people have lost their purchasing power," he said.

Azad pointed out that nearly 25,000 bank fraud cases involving nearly Rs. 1.75 lakh crore were reported under BJP's regime. Despite the increase in the corporate tax, it failed to meet the target. He alleged that the BJP Government was emptying the exchequer due to mismanagement. He said nearly Rs. 13 lakh crore was collected from the taxes on Diesel and Petrol. While fuel prices were falling elsewhere in the world, it increased in India. Now they are taking away the reserves of Reserve Bank of India. He said that the Central Government took Rs. 2.13 lakh crore from the RBI in four years from 2015-2018. Recently, he said the GoI took about Rs. 1.76 lakh crore from the RBI. So far, he said that the Central Government took away almost Rs. 4 lakh crore from RBI reserves.

The Congress leader said that the country was facing one of the worst agrarian crisis ever. As against the growth rate of nearly 5%, the present growth rate was not even 2%. He said non-fulfilment of promises made with farmers was primarily responsible for suicides. He said farmers were not given promised MSP with 50% input cost. He said farmers were forced to sell their Kharif produce at prices which were 8-37% cheaper than the MSP. He said the MSP hike for Rabi season too was insufficient and farmers across the country were left to the lurch.

Azad said agriculture was totally tax-free across the country. However, the BJP Government imposed 5% tax on fertilizers, 12% tax on tractors and other agriculture equipment and 18% tax on pesticides. Further, he said that the prices of diesel were hiked by three times. Under this scenario, many farmers suffered huge losses and committed suicide.

He said that the Modi Government was anti-farmer, anti-youth, anti-poor, anti-women and anti-development. "We don't want a government which is causing only harm to the people instead of benefitting them. This government always remains in election mode. Its only job is to fight elections and make people fight on one or the other issue. It kept people busy infighting over different issues so as to keep their attention diverted from real issues," he said.

Speaking about India's decision not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal, he said it was the victory of opposition parties which were opposing the deal. He said India would have turned into a dumping ground for foreign products which would have had a highly negative impact on the Indian economy and local businesses.

When asked for reaction many Congress leaders joining other parties, he said people with ethics would stay in the same party and only the greedy people would switch sides. Stating that politics for some people has turned like "fast food", he said both politics and politicians have lost their credibility ever since money started gaining prominence.

Azad strongly condemned the brutal murder of woman Tahsildar Vijaya Reddy in Ranga Reddy district on Monday. He demanded stern action against the culprits and said a new law should be brought up to ensure the safety of government employees. He said such horrific incidents would instil fear among all employees and they would not feel safe.

Commenting on RTC strike, Azad said that the employees were on strike since 31 days and nearly 20 of them died due to different reasons. He said if the Chief Minister had promised RTC's merger with the State Government and facilities for employees on par with government staff, then he must honour it. He said while it was wrong to break a promise, it was completely wrong to seek votes on a particular promise and forget it after winning elections.

With regard to Jammu & Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad said there was no change in the situation. "I'm a former Chief Minister of J&K and presently I'm holding the post of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha. I'm a Member of Parliament from the same State. But still, I was not allowed to visit Jammu & Kashmir. I tried to visit the State thrice and it was only after the Supreme Court's intervention that I was allowed conditional entry into Jammu & Kashmir. Similarly, our MPs and media are not being granted entry. There are several restrictions on local media. However, a false impression of normalcy was being created by bringing foreign NGOs and right-wing foreign MPs," he said adding that the government was trying to mislead the people on the issues. He also accused the BJP Government of making Kashmir an international issue.

Senior leaders including R.C. Khuntia, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, A. Revanth Reddy, K. Jana Reddy, Jeevan Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, Dr. J. Geetha Reddy and other senior leaders were also present.