Rahul Gandhi slams Modi over jobs, says India's PM is a joke

In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of jobs, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that his policies destroyed one crore jobs last year and said "India's PM is a joke". Gandhi's criticism of PM Modi came over a media report which claimed that the actual size of India's male workforce, or men who are working, has shrunk for the first time since 1993-94.

"I thought India was producing 450 jobs a day. Turns out Modi's policies destroyed 1 crore jobs in 2018. That's 27,000 jobs lost every single day of 2018. India's PM is a joke," he tweeted.

Addressing a rally in Manipur earlier in the day, Gandhi said: "In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi destroyed one crore jobs in the country. This is the scale of his incompetence. It is absurd and ridiculous that the PM promises giving two crore jobs."

Slamming the government over the issue of "job losses", Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the country's "chowkidar" is responsible for "stealing" jobs with 4.7 crore youth losing employment.

"Modi ji has eaten up 4.7 crore jobs of the youth. Due to the BJP's 'pan-pakoda' policy, 4.7 crore youth had to wash their hands of their jobs," he said.

"Promise was to give 10 crore jobs, but 4.7 crore jobs have been taken away. The country's chowkidar is responsible for stealing jobs," Surjewala said with the hashtag "Chowkidar Chor Hai".

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also slammed the government over the unemployment issue. He alleged that about two crore jobs were lost since Modi came to power, citing National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data.

Sibal said the national male workforce had shrunk from 30.4 crore in 2011-12 to 28.6 crore in 2017-18. In all, since 2011-12, India's national workforce shrunk by 4.7 crore, more than the population of Saudi Arabia, the media report said.