Twitterati are having a field day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman blamed the auto industry slump on millenials not wanting to buy cars and preferring services such as Ola and Uber. The FM also noted that confusion over BS6 vehicles is a reason for the slow down.
While it is debatable whether ride hailing services have had an impact on car sales or not, a report in the Business Standard showed that truck sales too have fallen heavily. Year on year in August, the overall sale of commercial vehicles of India’s top four medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles makers – Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Volvo Eicher, and Mahindra & Mahindra fell by around 59 per cent.
The whole issue has led to #SayItLikeNirmalaTai and #BoycottMillennials trending on social media. Here are some of the reactions:
One presented facts about how many cities in India have Ola and Uber services.
Districts in India 727
Talukas in India 5564
Total 6291 cities(only Tal & Dist)#Ola operational in 169 cities #Uber operational in 40 cities!
Total – 209 which means 3.32% of 6291 cities has access to #OlaUber#BoycottMillennials
Bhagwan se daro aunty!
Infocredit – @anutadme— Sneha (@sneha2986) September 11, 2019
While most went on a humour rant:
The only millennial concerned for car industry. #BoycottMillennials pic.twitter.com/Drbtw0VCFo
— Rofl Gandhi 2.0 (@RoflGandhi_) September 10, 2019
Truck Sales is down becouse driver sleepover on highway daba
Parle G Sales is down becouse media use Pedigree now #SayItLikeNirmalaTai pic.twitter.com/12d9QHkWyj— Mahatma Gandhi Sena (@dildar12) September 11, 2019
#BoycottMillennials as they are preferring live-in relationships instead of marriages.
Result: brahmins, pandits and jyotish, are becoming jobless.— Check_Mate (@IndianScooter) September 10, 2019
Underwear wasn’t spared too:
Bloody millennials have stopped wearing undies now ?#BoycottMillennialshttps://t.co/wo1xMpxfof
— Anisha Dutta (@A2D2_) September 11, 2019
Nirmala Sitharaman blames young people prefering Uber & Ola for falling automobile sales ?
Our FM seems to be a rank student in WhatsApp University. Crashing economy is everyone else’s fault, not Govt’s?
Next, Nirmala will say unemployment is rising bcos people dont want jobs! pic.twitter.com/WqHEfx0bhy
— Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) September 10, 2019