Opinion | The many layers to Nitin Gadkari’s comment on reservation and jobs

Gadkari’s statement must be seen in the light of the fact that this is a government that came to power on the promise of according “high priority to job creation and opportunities for entrepreneurship”.

Four years down the lane if the senior minister shrugs his shoulder with such a statement, it is bound to raise eyebrows. It is true that growth in government jobs is declining, but a Times of India report punches holes in Gadkari’s statement.

The report which compiled data from various questions asked in Parliament between February and July concludes are about 24 lakh state and central government jobs lying vacant. Of these, more than 10 lakh are in the education department for the post of teachers, almost 5.5 lakh is in the police and 2.4 lakh in the railways. By filling these vacancies one can expect a rise in the quality of education given, an improvement in law and order and a facelift to the safety and services rendered by the Indian Railways.

Another factor what makes the minister’s statement stand out is that it comes months before a general election and could be political fodder for the Opposition. In fact the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday tweeted that the minister “admits that the Modi Govt had being (sic) a total failure in creating Jobs.”

Gadkari is not the only senior BJP leader who is talking about joblessness. In a recent interview to CNN-News18, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje blamed lynching incidents on lack of jobs and people’s anger, saying, “This is the problem that stems out of population explosions. People wanting jobs, people are frustrated that they are not being able to get jobs.”

But has this government failed in providing employment? Speaking at a media conclave in March, Gadkari said that his ministry alone had generated 50 lakh jobs. Last month, he said that his department had generated jobs for one crore young Indians. The same month, in an interview to a magazine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “...more than 70 lakh jobs were created in the informal sector last year”.

The independent study on which the 70 lakh figure was arrived at was largely based on Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data, which in itself cannot be relied upon.

But the real issue is that this government is clueless about the level of unemployment in India since 2016. Replying to a question in Parliament in March, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, the MoS (in-charge) for labour and employment, said that there has been no Employment-Unemployment Survey since 2016.

Modi refers to this fact in the interview to the magazine mentioned above. It will take at least three months before any labour data is available.

As the BJP-led NDA government is preparing to go back to the people it will have to show the progress is has achieved in taking the economy forward, in containing inflation and show the number of people that have gained employment. With the absence of any reliable data, the claims made by the government or the counterclaims of the Opposition does not stand scrutiny.

Politically, however, Gadkari’s statement can be seen as a bold move. It is to be seen if there will be a political cost to pay for it.