Congress takes swipe at Modi's guarantee campaign, says his 'warranty' over

New Delhi, Mar 11 (PTI) The Congress on Monday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his "relentless campaign" on 'Modi ki Guarantee' cannot change the truth that he will say whatever he needs to in order to win an election and his "warranty" is now over.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the prime minister is going around the country proclaiming the virtues of his "guarantees" and since he has already been in power for a decade, one must do a status update of 10 guarantees he has given during his tenure.

He said Prime Minister Modi promised to create two crore jobs for India's youth every year but unemployment reached a 45-year peak in India under his "anyay-kaal (period of injustice)".

Since 2014, the number of unemployed persons has gone from one crore to four crore and to cover up its failures, "unpaid domestic work and pakora-sales" have been labelled as "jobs" by this government, Ramesh said in his post on X.

He said that on February 28, 2016, Modi promised to double farmers' income by 2022 but farmers' real income increased by just two per cent per year, nowhere close to the 12 per cent per year required for doubling by 2022.

"Instead, widespread agrarian distress due to inadequate MSP and rising input costs has caused farmer indebtedness to increase by 60%. In these circumstances, about one lakh farmers have died by suicide since 2014," he said.

Ramesh said Modi promised Rs 15 lakh in black money to be deposited in every Indian's bank account but this "guarantee" was admitted to be a "jumla" by Home Minister Amit Shah on February 5, 2015.

"In fact, the Modi government has totally failed to curb black money. 99.3% of the cash in circulation returned to the RBI after the failure of demonetisation. In the meantime, fraudsters like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have scammed India out of thousands of crores and gotten away scot-free with their black money," Ramesh alleged.

He claimed that Modi promised to show "laal aankh" to China but that country is "currently occupying 2,000 sq km of Indian soil".

"The prime minister, in his statement at the all-party meeting on June 19th, 2020, gave China a clean chit.... By giving China a public clean chit, Modi has refused to acknowledge the truth and take appropriate action, even as India has lost access to 26 out of 65 patrolling points on the LAC," he alleged.

PM Modi claimed that "nobody can touch" reservations while he is in power, Ramesh said.

The Congress leader said the University Grants Commission issued draft guidelines to de-reserve teaching posts for SC, ST, and OBC candidates in January 2024.

"The BJP has been removing reservations through the back door by privatising Public Sector Enterprises and contractualising jobs, cutting 2.7 lakh jobs in the remaining PSEs, and leaving 5 lakh reserved government posts vacant," he alleged.

The Modi government promised that 'Make in India' would deliver 10 crore manufacturing jobs by 2020, and increase the share of manufacturing to 25 per cent of GDP, he said.

Ramesh claimed that for the first time since 2004, workers are moving from manufacturing jobs back to farm jobs in the 'anyay-kaal'.

"2.4 crore manufacturing jobs have been lost in the chaos of demonetisation, GST, and the unplanned COVID-19 lockdown. The share of manufacturing in GDP has actually decreased from 16.5 per cent under Dr. Manmohan Singh to just 14.5 per cent under Modi," he said.

Recalling PM Modi's "na khaunga, na khaane dunga" remark against graft, Ramesh alleged that the Modi years have seen the "most open corruption" in India's history.

"The entire economy has been handed over to a few chosen crony capitalists," he alleged.

Ramesh also attacked the government over its 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign, claiming that 78.9% of the scheme's budget between 2016 and 2019 was spent on advertisements.

Since 2014, PM Modi has promised repeatedly to clean the Ganga by 2019, Ramesh said while claiming that the holy Ganga river is dirtier than ever before.

Noting that in June 2014, PM Modi promised to develop 100 cities as ‘smart cities', Ramesh said that in the years since, the Modi government has been unable to meaningfully define a 'smart city'.

"Even amidst the vagueness of this scheme, only one of the 110 cities - Madurai - has actually completed all the projects it embarked upon under this scheme. As of December 2023, 400 projects across the country were still incomplete. The scheme is so clearly unsuccessful that even the BJP's 2019 manifesto did not mention it," Ramesh claimed.

"The prime minister's relentless campaign on 'Modi ki Guarantee' cannot change the truth of the matter: that he is, at heart, a jumla-jeevi who will say whatever he needs to in order to win an election. Modi ki guarantee nahi, Modi ka warranty khatam hai!" the Congress leader said. PTI