The Congress and the BJP invoked Hitler and Mussolini as they sparred over data withheld by the government which show that unemployment rate rose to a 45-year high.
The reactions were spurred by a news report of a yet unpublished Periodic Labour Force Survey of the National Sample Survey Office. The report said that unemployment rates are higher than in 1972-73.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “Fuhrer.” In a tweet quoting the report, Mr. Gandhi asserted that it was time for the Prime Minister to go. “NoMo Jobs! The Fuhrer promised us 2 Cr jobs a year. 5 years later, his leaked job creation report card reveals a National Disaster. Unemployment is at its highest in 45 yrs. 6.5 Cr youth are jobless in 2017-18 alone. Time for NoMo2Go,” he tweeted with the hashtag ‘HowsTheJobs.’
In response, BJP likened the Congress president to Mussolini, saying he had a myopic understanding of issues like the Italian dictator. “EPFO’s real data shows sharp increase in jobs, created in just the last 15 months. Only a man who hasn’t ever held a proper job and is totally jobless can peddle such #FakeNews!” it said.
The CPI(M) too slammed the government for suppressing the data and demanded that the government release the NSSO report at the earliest. “The latest National Sample Survey Organisation's (NSSO) data that has been withheld by the Modi government has shown that unemployment in India post-demonetisation has reached a four-decade high,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement.
The rate of joblessness among the rural males in the age group of 15 to 29 years jumped more than three times to 17.4 per cent in 2017-18 compared to 5 per cent in 2011-12, the statement said. Unemployment rate of rural female youths stood at 13.6 per cent, compared to 4.8 per cent in the same period. High levels of unemployment were registered for the educated youth, both rural and urban. It is clear that the Modi government has been suppressing this information from reaching the public domain, it said.
“This suppression of data is a clear admission on the part of the Modi government that its policies have resulted in greater misery for our people,” the CPI(M) said.
Two statisticians of the National Statistical Commission had resigned on Monday objecting to the withholding of the report.
