Taking on the Narendra Modi government for the failures in various fronts, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the government ‘does not even want to accept that there is an employment crisis’.
The Congress president, who, along with Delhi Congress president and former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, was interacting with the University students from the national capital, at the Jawahar Lal Nehru stadiumm also said that soldiers of paramilitary forces, who lost their lives in the line of duty, will be given the status of martyrs, if the Congress government comes to power.
“When you look at India, America and Europe, the biggest problem dogging the countries is jobs. No solution is being brought out for the problem and this is the reason why anger is growing. The current government does not even want to accept that there is an employment crisis”, said Mr Gandhi.
Criticising the Modi government that it is using educational institutions as ‘a weapon by some’, Mr Gandhi said, ‘When I say government should support education, it means, making bank loans easier, giving scholarships, adding more Universities and pushing enrollment. If you look at all these numbers, they have fallen in the BJP regime.”
The Congress president accused that the ruling dispensation of insulting the students. ‘Vice-Chancellors, these days, are ideological people from an organisation. They are not concerned with global vision and feelings of students. They are only concerned with their own ideology and want to use India’s education system as a weapon. It is an insult to the students.
‘Youngsters of this country are the ones, who are actually capable of moving this country towards progress,’ he added.
Referring to the bank loan waiver to the industrialists, the Congress president further attacked the government and said it is neglecting students and helping only a few people.
“Millions of students take bank loans. How many of your bank loans have been forgiven? We have massive loans of 15 of the richest Indians being forgiven. Why is everything being done for 15-20 people?”, he asked.
Pointing out at the Pulwama attack, Mr Gandhi said ‘Personnel of the Paramilitary forces don’t get martyr’s status when they lay down their lives, when casualty is more in the case of paramilitary forces. However, they don’t have that much of infrastructure and support. They should get the status of martyrs and they will get it.
Recalling the incident that he hugged Prime Minister at Parliament, Mr Gandhi said he was only following the history of the country, which preaches love and non-violence.
‘If you look at the history of this country and philosophy of Gandhi, Mahaveer, Buddha, Ashoka, they all preached love and non-violence. This was the same philosophy when I hugged Mr Modi, while he was abusing me and my family,’ he said.
Mr Gandhi, while responding on different issues, alleged that Modi government was responsible for the rise in communal tension in the country.
‘When my Dadi (grandmother) was killed, my father was in Bengal. I was closer to my Dadi than my mother. My Dadi was killed by her security personnel. They were like my friends. Satwant Singh, who shot my Dadi, taught me how to play badminton. There was anger in me after she was killed. But when my father returned and asked me to hug him and see what happens,…it was like magic.’
The Congress president also challenged the Prime Minister to debate with him on issues like Rafale, corruption and unemployment.
Before the start of the interactive session, ‘Shiksha: Dasha Aur Disha’, a two-minute silence was also observed in honour of the 40 CRPF jawans, who died in Pulwama terror attack on February 14.
