Focus will be on unemployment, job creation: Rahul

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a ‘flop show’ when it comes to job creation and not addressing the issue of unemployment. Make in India and Start up India are fake statements. Unemployment is highest in the last 45 years, and this will be huge issue in the coming elections, said Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

The party’s focus in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections will be on employment, farmers, and a happy, prosperous and united India, said Gandhi, who was in the city en route to Nagercoil to address a public rally.

Economic growth is directly related to the mood of the country. This is something fundamental that the BJP and Modi do not understand. When the country is divided and fighting, States have acrimonious relationships; ‘how can we expect solid economic growth.’’ The first thing the Congress will do (when it comes to power) is bring harmony to the country, he told the media.

Job creation will happen through small and medium businesses by transforming them into large businesses. “We will open the banks to these businesses,” he said.

Currently, job creators are under assault and attacked by demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is extremely complicated, and allows a significant amount of ‘rent-seeking’ with Income Tax and other departments having oppressive roles. “We will simplify their lives. We have a phenomenal idea in the election manifesto of making entrepreneurship easy, simple and possible,” he said, adding that the Congress will simply the GST and also lower the tax, if possible.

The economy needs to be put on track, and the Congress has a ‘revolutionary’ idea called the Minimum Basic Income guarantee. “I am confident that we will be able to implement it when we come to power. After 2019, there will be nobody in India below the minimum income line; everybody will be brought into that line by a direct cash deposit into their bank accounts,” he said.

Gandhi said Modi is turning the demographic dividend into a disaster. There has to be a movement towards unification and building bridges by conversation.

Lashing out at Modi for not having an open conversation, Gandhi said, “Don’t have a conversation with me, speak to the press. Have the guts to meet the press and talk to 3,000 students. . Every other Opposition leader is holding a press conference, but Modi is not facing the press, “ he said.

On the Rafale controversy, Gandhi said, “we are not questioning the capability of the aircraft but only saying that ‘Modi and Anil Ambani have stolen ₹30,000 crore from the Air Force,” and that there should be an investigation. There will be an investigation and that at the end of it, “Modi and Anil Ambani will be convicted,” he said.

The Congress has firmed up alliances in a number of States, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Alliance talks in Bihar have practically concluded and are in the final stages in J&K. It is the BJP that does not have alliances,” he said.

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