PM's I-Day speech
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 17, 2024 -

EVEN if it was for some valid reason that social media have been buzzing with indignant protests from leaders and supporters of the Congress party over the seating arrangement made for the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort, where Rahul Gandhi, who is the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, was assigned a seat in the second last row in a complete departure from tradition and protocol; we somehow feel that the issue has needlessly diverted the attention of fellow countrymen from taking a serious look at some of the preposterous claims made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his longest ever Independence Day speech.

Of course, what the Ministry of Defence, which was responsible for organising the event, had done was totally wrong, and, thus, had to subsequently come up with an even more ludicrous clarification.

But more than belittling the democratic tradition and protocol, it is taking the citizens of the country for a ride with false claims by none other than the Prime Minister of the country himself that everyone should be seriously worry about.

During his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did shed light on several key issues and shared a roadmap for making India a developed nation by 2047 in alignment with the central government's goal of achieving a 'Viksit Bharat' before the country celebrates its independence centenary.

He spoke about the need to bring not only educational and agricultural reforms but also transforming India into a manufacturing hub to become a global leader in semiconductor production, which has been a key focus of his government to boost the domestic economy.

So far and so good. But once the Prime Minister started talking about skilling Indian youth, creation of green jobs and the "countless opportunities for employment, which never came in the seven decades after Independence, are knocking their doors," then the ruse automatically falls apart.

Just as there has been no employment and unemployment survey in the country after it was replaced by Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) since 2017, there is no official data to back up the claim made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the "countless opportunities for employment" created for the Indian youth.

Contrary to the claim, several surveys conducted by independent agencies have pointed out stagnation in employment growth not only in India but also across the globe.

Notwithstanding the forced removal of India Employment Report 2024 from the website of International Labour Organization (ILO), which was released weeks before the 18th Lok Sabha elections, following a complaint raised by the Labour Ministry against the report that stated India's youth account for almost 83% of the unemployed workforce and the share of youngsters with secondary or higher education in the total unemployed youth has almost doubled from 35.2% in 2000 to 65.7% in 2022, the ILO's Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 report, which was incidentally released earlier this week, continues to maintain that youngsters across the world are unable to find secure work and their chances of finding a job decrease as the income level of the country they reside in decreases.

Although the name of the country has not been mentioned specifically due to obvious reason, India has been no exception to this global trend, howsoever wishful one might be.

This is also the precise reason why the Opposition in the country has been targeting the Central government repeatedly over the spiralling unemployment rate and unavailability of statistics related to employment figures.

As a matter of fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referring to the goal of skilling Indian youth, a roadmap outlined in the Union Budget-2024-25 unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament on July 23 last, could be seen as acknowledgement of the stagnation in employment growth in the country.

Anyway, after listening to his Independence Day speech, one thing we can say for sure - Prime Minister Narendra Modi still has the strength to stand and speak non-stop for 98 minutes without addressing any substantial issues afflicting the country today and yet put the blame on "Kuchh log" who cannot digest India's progress under his administration.