Congress leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for announcing Rs 1-lakh-crore youth employment scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana’ in his Independence Day speech on Friday.
Reminding the Modi-led Central government of the Prime Minister Internship Scheme, announced last year, that promised to provide 12-month paid 1 crore internships, Gandhi said PM Modi is rehearsing the figures even after 11 years in government.
“Rs 1 lakh crore rhetoric - Season 2! Even after 11 years, Modi ji’s same old rhetoric, same rehearsed figures,” Rahul Gandhi wrote on X on Friday.
He further said, “From last year’s promise of 1 lakh crore to 1 crore internships to this year’s Rs 1 lakh crore job scheme!”
Sharing the figures from a response to his question asked in Lok Sabha in the Monsoon Session this year, he said the government admitted that less than 10,000 youth joined the internships offered. Gandhi attributed this to low stipends under the scheme.
“What’s the truth? In response to my question in Parliament, the government admitted, less than 10,000 internships [were given]. The stipend was so low that 90% of youth refused it,” he wrote.
He further said, “Modi ji has no new ideas left. The youth will not get jobs, but only rhetoric from this government.”
In his 12th consecutive Independence Day address from the Red Fort, PM Modi announced Rs 1-lakh-crore ‘Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana’ for first-time job seekers.
The scheme, he said, will provide a one-time incentive of Rs 15,000 to first-time private-sector job seekers, targeting approximately 3.5 crore beneficiaries.
However, Gandhi pointed out that, under the existing PM Internship Scheme, out of 10.77 lakh applications, 1.53 lakh internships were offered. Among the offered internships, only 9453 interns accepted the offer and joined.
PM Modi on Friday delivered a 103-minute Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the longest by any prime minister in India’s history. He broke his 98-minute record from the 78th Independence Day last year.
In the speech, he outlined new economic and security initiatives, including a GST overhaul, a Rs 1-lakh-crore scheme for first-time job seekers, indigenous semiconductor production, and Mission Sudarshan Chakra for safeguarding strategic and public sites.
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