The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the Congress of peddling ‘fake news’ after the Opposition party hit out at BJP over the NSSO unemployment data leaked by a newspaper on Thursday, 31 January.
On Thursday, the Business Standard released data from the periodic labour force survey (PLFS) conducted by the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO), which said that unemployment rate in India was at a 45-year high, at 6.1 percent in 2017-18.
Refuting the reports, the BJP wrote on its official Twitter account, “EPFO's real data shows sharp increase in jobs created in just the last 15 months.” It added that Congress President Rahul Gandhi won’t understand the facts as he has never had a proper job.
“It's clear that he has inherited Mussolini's shortsightedness and has myopic understanding of issues,” BJP said in response to Gandhi’s tweet, which had referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the ‘Fuhrer’ (Adolf Hitler).
After BJP’s attack, Congress defended Gandhi and wrote on Twitter that EPFO data does not reflect creation of new jobs.
‘NoMo Jobs’: Rahul Gandhi
Earlier on Thursday, Gandhi had lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the leaked unemployment data report. “The Fuhrer promised us 2 Crore jobs a year. 5 years later, his leaked job creation report card reveals a National Disaster, ” the Congress president wrote on Twitter.
Unemployment Rate Highest in 45 Years
According to the survey, the country’s unemployment rate in 2017-18 was at its highest since 1972-73. The data has been attributed to demonetisation, a November 2016 decision taken by the Modi government to scrap high currency notes.
According to the survey, joblessness is higher in the urban areas of the country than in rural India.
Earlier on 28 January, the National Statistical Commission (NSC) acting Chairperson PC Mohanan, along with his colleague JV Meenakshi, had resigned after the government allegedly withheld NSSO's annual survey on employment.
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