Union Minister and senior BJP leader Anurag Singh Thakur said on Wednesday that the opposition INDI Alliance is making “misleading and hollow” allegations on insufficient jobs in the country as part of their “bogus propaganda” to gain votes in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
To back his argument, Thakur cited a recently released report by the consultant group SKOCH that shows 5.14 crore person-years of employment have been generated every year since 2014, adding up to 51.4 core person-years of employment over the decade ending 2024 since the Narendra Modi government came to power.
“Due to the visionary, inclusive, and forward-looking policies and programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the past decade has seen the creation of crores of sustainable jobs despite the global economic disruption and the downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
“The report released by SKOCH — ’Outcomes of ModiNomics: 2014-2024’, which looks at the scale and scope of employment generated over the past decade — has exposed the Opposition’s allegations as nothing more than bogus propaganda,” he added.
The Minister also said that the Opposition tried to spread the canard that there has been no reduction in poverty.
But data-based studies of international organisations like IMF and World Bank show that there has been a massive reduction in absolute poverty numbers during the ‘Modi Decade’, compared to the previous ‘UPA Decade of Decay’, he said.
“During the Congress-led UPA rule, corruption used to be banner headlines. Now, the Modi government’s unprecedented thrust on development makes headlines. That’s the key difference,” he remarked.
He also pointed out that the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana of the Modi government has played a major role in providing 3.6 crore jobs every year. Along with this, schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Gram Sadak Yojana, Skill Development Scheme, PM Swanidhi, and PLI schemes have also directly helped in providing employment to the people.
The Minister said, “Modi 3.0 will bring bigger changes and transformation. We will soon become the third largest economy in the world.”
Citing employment data, Thakur said, “As many as 7 crore 60 lakh people have been enrolled in EPFO from 2018 to 2024. This means that so many people have got employment in the formal sector and this has happened even as Covid disrupted the economy for almost two years.
“About 30 crore e-shram cards were issued, due to which people got a chance to stand on their feet. The Modi government provided employment to 1 crore 44 lakh people last year. It is clear from these figures that the unemployment rate is continuously falling,” he added.
He also said that two years ago, GST collections were around Rs 90,000 crore which went up to more than 2 lakh 14 thousand crore now.
“This shows that our business has increased manifold and if the business has increased, won’t the employment rate also go up? Similarly, foreign direct investment has increased from $31 billion to $71 billion…This too has increased employment opportunities in the country,” Thakur said.