PM 'systematically' ended employment system: Rahul

Chandigarh: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday over the unemployment issue and accused him of "systematically" ending the employment system of the country. Addressing a poll rally in Assandh, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha exuded confidence that the Congress would sweep the October 5 Haryana assembly election. He raised the issue of caste census and also accused the BJP of dividing the people and pitting them against each other. "The Congress is going to sweep the Haryana elections. A storm is coming and we will form the government for all," Gandhi said.

Congress MP Kumari Selja, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the party's state unit chief Udaibhan and other leaders were present at the rally. Attacking the BJP government, Gandhi said it has "destroyed" Haryana.

The former Congress chief referred to his recent visit to the US and said he met some youths from Haryana who went there in search of a better future as they were unable to get employment opportunities in their state.

Gandhi said he found that 15 to 20 Haryana youths were staying in one room in Dallas, Texas. The Congress leader said he asked them how they reached America and came to know about their ordeal of travelling through countries such as Kazakhstan and Turkey as well as South American nations and the jungles of Panama, to reach the US. They were looted by the mafia on their way to the US and even saw their brothers dying, Gandhi said.

Addressing the rally, Gandhi said he was told by one of the youths that it required at least Rs 35 lakh to reach the US which they either borrowed at an exorbitant rate of interest or got it by selling their farmland. Asked if they could have started some business in Haryana instead of spending the money on travelling to the US, they replied it was not feasible to start any business with that money, the Congress leader told the rally.

A business cannot be started in Haryana with Rs 50 lakh, Gandhi said, adding he was told by the youths in Texas that had they spent the amount on starting a business in Haryana, it must have failed. One of them even tried and he failed, he said and accused the BJP government of “killing” small businesses with a “wrong” GST regime. Some 10-15 people want to sell Chinese products in India, he alleged.