Modi Govt Betrayed People, Responsible For Price Rise & Unemployment: Congress

Bhubaneswar: Accusing the BJP-led Government at the Centre of betraying people, the Congress on Monday alleged that the country is facing a record price rise and the highest unemployment in 45 years due to wrong economic policies adopted by the Narendra Modi regime.

Addressing a press meet in Bhubaneswar, senior Congress leader and MP Neeraj Dangi also lashed out at the BJD Government in Odisha accusing it of being hand in gloves with the Centre and responsible for growing unemployment in the state.

Claiming that over 1,62,000 government posts are lying vacant in the state, the Rajya Sabha member said around 80,000 of the vacant posts are at the entry-level, but the Naveen Patnaik Government is not taking any step to fill them.

As the state Government seems to be endorsing the policies of the Centre, both are certainly acting as partners in causing inflation and growing unemployment, he claimed.

Coming down heavily on the Centre, the Congress leader said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dangled a dream of a future free from inflation and unemployment when he came to power. “Instead, he has delivered a nightmare of record price rise and the highest joblessness in 45 years,” he said.

Charging the Modi Government with having failed in all sectors, Dangi said it has not just failed to control price rise since coming to power in 2014, but its faulty policies and deceitfulness have exacerbated the suffering of the people.

Modi boasted to voters in 2019 how essential items like foodgrains, curd, lassi and buttermilk were GST-free, but he imposed GST on these items in 2022. Ujjwala Yojana was used to win votes in the 2019 elections but soon after, Modi cold-heartedly eliminated cooking gas subsidies, he alleged.

The price of LPG, which stood at Rs 410 per cylinder in 2014, has more than doubled to over Rs 1,053 to Rs 1,240 per cylinder and lakhs of consumers can no longer afford to refill their empty gas cylinders, Dangi said.

“These are just two of the many examples where Modi deceived the people of India to win votes and then stabbed them in the back,” he said.

The Centre’s desperation to fill its coffers at all costs has led it to impose exorbitant fuel taxes that have further hurt Indian consumers’ purchasing power. The global prices of petrol, diesel and LPG were much higher in 2013-14 than in 2021-22 but consumers pay much more now for a litre of fuel or an LPG cylinder than they did during the rule of the UPA government, he said.

International prices of crude oil and LPG are decreasing for the past few months but the benefit has not been passed on to the consumers, he said.

The policies adopted by the Centre have resulted in growing unemployment in the country, while demonetisation and hasty GST implementation had already dealt a body blow to the economy, said Dangi.

On top of this, the Modi government is shutting down and privatising PSUs and handing over prized national assets to its ‘corporate cronies’, he claimed.

Its ‘anti-youth’ policies have led to 10 lakh vacancies in central government, which is 24 per cent of the total sanctioned posts, he said.

The poorly conceived Agnipath scheme is a fresh threat to the job prospects of our youth as well as to national security, he claimed.

The consequences have been devastating as lakhs of youth have turned despondent and dropped out of the job market. Despite this exodus, 42 per cent of youth in the age group of 20 to 24 who are still looking for jobs are unemployed, Dangi alleged.

Stressing that Congress stands with the people in these difficult times, he said from ‘Sansad to Sadak’, the party has raised its voice against the incompetence and the misguided policies of the Modi government that have exacerbated price rise and joblessness in India.

“Since June 2021, we have organised seven nationwide protests and mass awakening programmes. Subsequent to our nationwide demonstration against price rise on August 5, we will hold ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ rally at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on September 4,” he said.

The Congress wants the BJP-led government to fulfil its promise to curb inflation and generate jobs at the earliest, he added.