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Neither UPA nor NDA could tackle job crisis: Gandhi in LS

Feb 04, 2025 08:46 AM IST

In a candid admission, Gandhi acknowledged that neither the United Progressive Alliance nor the National Democratic Alliance governments were able to tackle unemployment and said that while the Make in India programme was a “good idea”, it was now clear that it had failed.

New Delhi: The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Monday presented an alternative vision of the President’s speech that he said would have focussed on the technological revolution, solving the unemployment problem, boosting industrial systems to take on China and a more representative vision of development model that included marginalised communities.

Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi speaks during the Budget Session, in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI PHOTO)
Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi speaks during the Budget Session, in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI PHOTO)

Speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, Gandhi centred his address around on what a presidential address under an INDIA bloc government would look like – he called the address delivered by President Droupadi Murmu last week a laundry list of government achievements – focussing on building capabilities in critical areas to take on China, ensuring that banking systems were accessible to all, a foreign policy that took into account the technological revolution, and a model of development based on data from the caste census.

In a candid admission, Gandhi acknowledged that neither the United Progressive Alliance nor the National Democratic Alliance governments were able to tackle unemployment and said that while the Make in India programme was a “good idea”, it was now clear that it had failed.

“Even though we have grown, the universal problem we face is that we have not been able to tackle the problem of unemployment. Neither the UPA, nor the NDA government has given an answer to this issue. The PM proposed Make in India—I think it was a good idea— but we saw statues, functions and advertisements. And the share of the manufacturing sector in the GDP has fallen from 15.3% to 12.6%, which is the lowest in 60 years,” Gandhi said.

“What and how are we going to solve this unemployment problem? By organising consumption and production. Pretty much every government since the 1990s did a decent job in organising consumption. “But the record of the country in organising production is dismal…what we have done is that we have handed over the organisation of production to the Chinese,” he said, adding that due to rising unemployment, social tension was on the rise in India.

Gandhi said that his message to the young was that a mobility revolution was taking place. “We are moving from the world of the internal combustion engine to the world of the electric motor and we are moving from petrol to batteries,” he said.

“The last time there was a revolution, the computer revolution, the Congress government looked at the revolution and decided that we are going to focus on development of software. We rode the wave of that revolution. Today you can see the results,” he said.

Gandhi said four technologies driving change in mobility were electric motors, batteries, optics, and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI). “Our President’s address will say to youngsters, we will choose critical areas in each one of these technologies and we will start to build capabilities in those areas. We would ensure our banking system is not captured by 2-3 companies, our banking system is open, dynamic and accessible to small and medium businesses,” he said.

He said that India could not afford that the Chinese were at the forefront of this revolution, and added that Beijing was 10 years ahead. “We would make our youngsters partners in the mobility revolution. We would say to them that we believe in you and that you can take on the Chinese.

The top Opposition leader showed his mobile phone and said, “We say we make this mobile phone in India, But the fact is this phone is assembled in India and all its components are made in China.”

Referring to the US as a strategic partner, Gandhi said the partnership should focus on how both countries can work together to take advantage of the mobility revolution. He said India is as important as the US and it (US) cannot build an industrial production system without India. “Americans cannot do what India can do. Cost structure is very expensive there.”, he said.

Unlike some of his previous speeches, Gandhi avoided aggression even as he alleged a sudden rise in voter numbers in Maharashtra and discrepancies in the selection of election commissioners.

The Congress leader said that in a gap of five months, a voting population equivalent to Himachal Pradesh was added to the voter rolls of Maharashtra, where the NDA won a landslide victory earlier this year. “This means the entire population of Himachal Pradesh was added to the voter rolls of Maharashtra. Almost 70 lakh new voters suddenly appeared between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections,” he said.

He also questioned the removal of the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee of election commissioners, referring to a controversial law that is under challenge in the Supreme Court. The panel currently comprises the PM, the home minister and the LoP.

“Now in a few days, I’m going to go to the meeting. It will be PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and me, 2-1. Why even am I going to the meeting? I am only going there to certify what Modi and Amit Shah are going to say. Whereas if the Chief Justice was there, we could have a discussion. It seems to be a calculated strategy. Just before Lok Sabha, the election commissioner was changed and 2 new election commissioners were placed. We know that the election dates were changed and postponed. These are facts,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi reiterated the demand for a caste census, pointing out that such a census in Telangana has shown nearly 90% of the population were Dalits, Tribals, backwards and minorities.

“Imagine the power of AI when we apply it to the caste census. Imagine what we will do with AI and what we will do with the social revolution in this country when we start to apply AI to the data that we get from the caste census. We are going to run a parallel track, on one side revolutionising the participation of Dalits, OBC and Adivasis in the ruling of this country, in the institutions of this country, in the distribution of wealth of this country and on the other side, parallel track challenge the Chinese and participate in the revolution, defeat the Chinese in electric motors, batteries, solar panels and wind. That is the first two parts of any Presidential address that any INDIA gathbandhan leader would give you,” he said.

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