By PTI
LUCKNOW: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to convert India’s demographic dividends of being a young country into a demographic disaster.
The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister made the allegation asserting that the BJP and RSS wish to raise youths of the country like herds of sheep with a band on their eyes.
Singh hurled the charges here at the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters while releasing a booklet on the issue of youth unemployment.
“We are among the youngest countries in the world. But the Modi government is trying to convert this demographic dividend into a demographic disaster,” said Singh.
“The BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh want to raise youths of the country like sheep by tying a band on their eyes because an educated, talented, job-seeking youth, a youth thinking and questioning, is the biggest threat to the agenda of the Sangh Parivar,” the former MP CM alleged.
He also accused the BJP of seeking to spread hatred and discrimination among youths.
“Instead of providing education and employment to youths, the BJP uses all its power on teaching discrimination, hatred and violence, so that they do not ask questions, do not ask for jobs, neither talk about the future nor evaluate government policies,” he said.
Recalling that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had come to power by promising jobs to two crore youths every year, Singh said far from providing 14 crore new jobs in the last seven years, the jobs of crores, already employed, have been lost.
“India will have to create 34.35 crore new jobs by the year 2028, that is, three to four crore new jobs every year. It will take 1,560 years for the BJP government to provide so many jobs at the current pace,” he said.
Presenting some figures, Singh said on January 1, 2022, the unemployment rate in the country increased to 7.9 per cent and added even the unemployment rate in cities has crossed 10 per cent.
Even before the Corona period, the unemployment rate had increased to 6.1 per cent in the year 2017-18, which was the highest in 45 years, according to the 2019 NSSO report, he said.
“It is a matter of concern that the unemployment rate among young people of 20-29 years is 28 per cent. The more educated the youth, the more unemployed,” he said.
He said the Modi government has left no stone unturned to suppress the voice of criticism of students and youth.
“Today there is an atmosphere of fear, harassment, repression and pressure all around from colleges to universities. The student organisations of the BJP promote a special kind of hooliganism and caste discrimination,” Digvijay Singh added.
