The Congress today hit out at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, on its third anniversary, accusing it of having failed on all fronts including jobs creation.
"The BJP government has failed on all fronts. Their tall promise of creating two crore jobs annually too has fallen flat. Every month 10 lakh youth get added to the queue of the unemployed.
"India needs to create 34.35 crore jobs by 2028, that is 3-4 crore jobs every year. At current speed, the government will take 1,560 years to create as many jobs," Congress general secretary and former Union minister, C P Joshi said at a press conference where Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar was also present.
Joshi, who is also a party spokesperson, alleged that the BJP only believed in propaganda, politics of polarisation, false promises and misleading the public.
"Yesterday, former PM Manmohan Singh had said that the country's growth has slowed down mainly due to demonetisation. Maximum impact has been seen on the informal sector, the government should tell how many jobs have been lost in this sector," he said.
Asked about the BJP's argument that they have not been hit by any scam, unlike the previous Congress led UPA government, Joshi said, "you wait for some time, many things will come out of the closet."
He said the Congress will collect proof on how corruption was going on and then bring it before the people.
"Congress is a responsible party, we do not want to mislead people....We also want to ask why no action is being taken against some big companies, who owe banks a whopping Rs 1.25 lakh crore," he said.
Joshi said the BJP led government had collected Rs 1,32,649 crore as "education cess" in the last three years and said that "no one knows where the money has gone?"
He said that according to a report, as many as 4.7 crore school children drop out every year and government schools have vacancies of over 5 lakh teachers.
Joshi said that Aadhaar has been made compulsory for the 'mid day meal' scheme which may deprive many children from getting these meals.
"The UGC budget has been cut by 55 per cent from Rs 9,315 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 4,286 crore in 2016-17. Autonomy of universities has been compromised. Gag orders, slew of bans and harassment of girls have stifled opinions and discussions in several institutes of higher learning," he alleged.
On MGNREGA, he said, the government had increased the wages by a paltry average of just 2.7 per cent in 2017-18.
"A cruel joke is that in BJP ruled states like Assam, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Utarakhand, the increase in daily wages under MGNREGA is an abysmal Re 1 in 2017-18," he alleged.
"On one hand, BJP makes Aadhaar card compulsory for MGNREGA but only 15 per cent registered workers are linked to Aadhaar based payments uptill December 2016. This will deny work and kill the MGNREGA," he said.
He also claimed the 'startup' campaign India was a "non- starter".
Joshi also quoted National Crime Record Bureau figures, saying they showed that kidnapping of women, human trafficking and crimes against children have witnessed a surge.
"Delhi and BJP ruled states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have the highest crime rate," he said.
On the Centre's flagship 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' campaign, he said, it was a "still-born" idea centred around fanfare, sloganeering and an ad blitz.
He said that Rs 1,000 crore of "Nirbhaya Fund" for women's safety and dignity had not been utilised.
Referring to the Haryana government's move to have a criteria of minimum qualification for those contesting Panchayat elections, Joshi said the BJP governments in Rajasthan and Haryana had disenfranchised 75 per cent women by mandating educational qualification.
"Women in Assam are now being punished for having more than two children by denying them the right to get elected," he said.
He also alleged that fear psychosis was being created amongst the minorities of the country.
"BJP is attacking minorities as a tool of their polarising agenda," he alleged. He also claimed that atrocities on the Dalits had increased ever since the BJP came to power.
"Also, recruitment in central government jobs for scheduled castes has declined by 91 per cent during the BJP rule," he claimed.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
