Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has claimed that the Central government was forced to withdraw its decision to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal and it was a victory for the opposition parties.
Addressing a press conference here, he alleged the BJP government was ready to make India a dumping ground for cheap foreign products at the cost of Indian businesses but the strong opposition from Congress and other parties forced it to retract.
Mr. Azad, who was in Hyderabad as part of Congress party’s nationwide campaign against the deteriorating economy, said the Centre was least bothered about rising unemployment and fall in the growth rate and was busy dividing people on emotional issues.
“We will expose how Mr. Modi had failed on all fronts. Where are the 10 crore jobs he promised and Rs. 15 lakh in every account,” he asked revealing that unemployment was highest in the last 46 years as pointed out by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and it stood at 18.9% as per the Centre for Monitoring of India Economy (CMIE) report. While the global unemployment rate, as per the International Labour Organisation, stood at 4.5%, India’s rate was nearly 8.5%. And among the educated youth it was over 15%.
Mr. Azad said the GDP growth rate during UPA regime was nearly 10% and its average in a decade was 8.5%. “After BJP came to power it is less than 5%,” he said.
The Congress leader also claimed that private investment is lowest in 16 years; Industrial growth was just 1.1% in August which was lowest in 7 years; Sale of passenger vehicles has dropped by 23.7% and even FMCG sales have reduced significantly and people have lost their purchasing power.
Mr. Azad pointed out that nearly 25,000 bank fraud cases involving nearly ₹ 1.75 lakh crore were reported under BJP’s regime. Modi government collected nearly ₹ 13 lakh crore from the taxes on Diesel and Petrol when fuel prices were falling elsewhere in the world. So far, the government of India has taken almost ₹ 4 lakh crore from RBI reserves.
AICC incharge for Telangana R.C. Khuntia said that it was Rahul Gandhi who first raised the RCEP issue on twitter and this forced the Central government to withdraw from its intentions, and the credit should go to him.
