October 8, 2019
Modi: Prime Minister or a Braggart?
By Syed Rifaqat Ali
In 2014 the Bhartiya Janta Party came to power at the Centre, leaving the 150-year-old Congress Party way behind in the general election and Sonia Gandhi had to bite the dust. Narendra Modi was sworn in as the prime minister in place of Dr.Manmohan Singh, the internationally-known economist.
During the general election canvassing, Modi bragged time and again that he would create 20-million jobs each year and lured the youth towards a bright future. All in vain. Today, there is widespread resentment in India among the youth with lack of job opportunities.
The situation is so acute that for 90,000 vacancies in the Indian Railways, there were 28 million applicants for test and interview. Still worse has been the situation in Mumbai (earlier Bombay).
There were 200,000 candidates for 1,137 police constable job, many were over-qualified: 423 had degrees in engineering, 167 were Masters in Business Administration, 543 were post-graduates. And the basic qualification required for the job was 12 standard.
Shockingly, India's employment rate was 52 per cent in 2015, below Nepal (81 per cent), Maldives (66 per cent), Bhutan (65 per cent), Bangladesh (60 per cent).
In 2017, as many as 18.3 million Indians were unemployed and unemployment is projected to rise to 18.9 million by 2019, according to World Employment and Social Outlook-Trends 2018 report by the
International Labour Organisation.
The job opportunities in India are no where to be seen and thousands and thousands of business houses are winding up for one reason or the other.
The problem is mounting day by day, particularly among the rural youth. Millions and millions of young Indians who voted for Modi to grab power at the Centre are now repenting and cursing him with invectives. But the Bhartiya Janta Party is unmindful of such a grim situation.
The sagging economy is a disturbing scenario. Narendra Modi is not at all bothered about the plight of millions and millions of youth in India. Instead, he is just carrying out the RSS agenda which is to make India a Hindu Rashtra (country) and wipe out the Muslim culture.
People in India are now fed up with this kind of narrative and desperation is looming in all four corners of the country.
The Hindutva card Modi is playing will boomerang in the coming years since millions of people have lost patience to gulp such bilious agenda which negates the social and cultural fabric of India which comprises Hindus, Muslims, Bhuddists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and others. This is the Age of science and technology and the world is moving fast. India does not seem to be in consonance with such developments.
Syed Rifaquat Ali is a Sydney-based journalist.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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