BJP president Amit Shah today said the Narendra Modi led dispensation is working towards eradicating unemployment through its holistic and multi- dimensional policies as the country had an "army of unemployed youth" during the previous UPA government.
"We are fortunate that India is full of youth. However, due to the wrong policies of previous government, it had an army of unemployed youth, and it was becoming a liability for the country," Shah said.
"However, the Narendra Modi government brought holistic and multi-dimensional policies such as 'Skill India', 'Mudra Bank', 'Start-Up India' and 'Stand-up India' in last two years and has been working towards eradication of unemployment," he said.
Shah was addressing a convention here of Pramod Mahajan Skill and Entrepreneurship Mission, a state government initiative on the lines of the Centre's 'Skill India'.
"Today, majority of people are dependent on agriculture. However, the farming sector is not profitable and that is why to lessen the dependency on farming, the Skill India, Stand Up India, Start up India schemes were launched.
"All these schemes are directly related to the 'Make In India' initiative, which is being instrumental in eradicating unemployment," said Shah, who was welcomed at Bal Gandharv auditorium here amid 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' slogans by BJP workers and others.
He said before the present NDA rule the country was trapped in uncertainty for 30 years, and after all these years, the Modi government, which got complete mandate, is working towards resurrection of the nation.
"To fight the issues in any nation, political will and determination play a major role and God has imparted such will and determination abundantly to Modiji," he said.
Taking a dig at the Congress, the BJP president said during previous government, the GDP's definition was restricted only to industrialisation, production, infrastructure and jobs.
However, the Modi government transformed the definition and widened its scope by linking it to social and women empowerment by providing free gas connections to poor, toilets, LPG subsidy and several other things, he said.
Nearly 20 AAP workers from the party's local unit were detained when they staged a protest outside the venue where Shah was speaking.
On the occasion, Shah drew parallels between the
response to Modi's call for people to give up LPG subsidy for the poor, and the way people reacted to former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's appeal to give up one meal.
"In a similar way, when Modiji appealed to the well-off Indians to give up gas subsidies for poor, more than 1 crore people gave up the subsidies," he said.
The BJP president said that currently, the nation is in the "safe hands".
India is rapidly becoming world's biggest economy and even leaving behind China, he said.
"This is happening because, Modiji starts thinking where others stop," he said.
Shah said after Independence, for the first time, the foreign exchange has increased in 2015.
"In 2015, coal, electricity, automobile, export of software, urea production increased in leaps and bound," he said.
The convention was attended by BJP state president Raosaheb Danve, Pune MP Anil Shirole and MLAs from Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad.
Shah was presented the Pune's traditional head gear, 'Puneri Pagdi, on the occasion.
Meanwhile, the Aam Adami Party workers from its city unit staged a protest outside the venue and showed black flags to Shah while demanding a probe into allegations against former state Revenue minister Eknath Khadse.
The police had to intervene after AAP and BJP workers came face to face.
"We were demanding a transparent probe in Khadse's case and protesting peacefully. However, BJP workers roughed us up and snatched our posters and tried to intimidate us," an AAP worker, who along with 20 others were detained by city police, alleged.
"We have detained around 20 workers of AAP as they were not given any permission to carry out the protest. They suddenly came to the spot. However, we managed to take them away," police Inspector Sushma Chavan, in-charge of Decccan-Gymkhana police station, said.
