Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over media reports quoting the National Sample Survey Office, that India’s unemployment rate rose to a 45-year high during 2017-2018.

Addressing PM Modi as a ‘tyrannical leader”, Gandhi tweeted, “The Fuhrer promised us 2 Cr jobs a year. 5 years later, his leaked job creation report card reveals a National Disaster”.

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Quoting the Government survey report, Rahul Gandhi said 6.5 crore youth were jobless during 2017-18 alone.

NoMo Jobs!

The Fuhrer promised us 2 Cr jobs a year. 5 years later, his leaked job creation report card reveals a National Disaster.

Unemployment is at its highest in 45 yrs.

6.5 Cr youth are jobless in 2017-18 alone.

Time for NoMo2Go. #HowsTheJobs pic.twitter.com/nbX4iYmsiZ

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 31, 2019

The issue hogged the limelight after two independent members of the National Statistical Commission — PC Mohanan and JV Meenakshi — resigned on January 28 over a disagreement with the Government on certain issues.

One issue pertains to the government withholding the release of the results of NSSO’s quinquennial survey, for the year 2017-18 even though the commission approved the report. This gains significance in the wake of the government being criticised for a scarcity of jobs in the country.

The NSC is the top advisory body on statistical matters.

“We have resigned from the NSC. Over the months, we have been feeling that we were not been taken seriously and being sidelined by the government. Recent decisions of the NSC were not being implemented,” acting chairperson PC Mohanan was quoted as saying by media reports.

Read | ‘Not taken seriously’: 2 national statistics panel members quit over disagreement with Govt

Following the developments, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Wednesday put out a clarification stating that the NSSO was processing the quarterly data for the period July 2017 to December 2018 and the report will be released thereafter.

Read | After 2 statistics panel members quit, Govt clarifies on jobs report, revised GDP data

The media report revealing a massive hike in the unemployment rate has come as a major setback for the Narendra Modi government just months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections which are likely to be held in April-May.