Reacting to the PM Modi interview, Opposition raises questions on price rise and unemployment

Congress highlights unemployment

Attacking the prime minister, Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan said roads are being beautified in view of the upcoming G20 Summit, but India’s youth “is asking about employment.”

“People want their answers on scams and inflation,” she said.

Congress leader Shobha Oza alleged that under the current government, the lives of common people have been made difficult due to inflation and unemployment.

“There have been atrocities on women, Dalits and tribals,” she alleged.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said it is unfortunate to “paint fantasies” about a distant future when the country is going through a “tough time” and asserted that it is “too early to speak about superpower because too many of our people are still super poor”.

Reacting to the prime minister’s vision for 2047, Tharoor said, “It is too early to speak about (being) superpower because too many of our people are still super poor. We still have to first address the real problems of the poor, the marginalized, the deprived.”

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AAP accuses PM Modi of lying to get votes

The Aam Aadmi Party claimed that unemployment has been the highest in 42 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose only motto is to “lie to the people, get their votes and rule over them”.

Reacting to the prime minister’s comments that fake news and deep fakes can cause chaos and loss of credibility of news sources and can be used to fuel social unrest, the AAP accused the Union Cabinet of being “responsible for most of the fake news”.

AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the prices of fuel and medicines have gone up considerably under Prime Minister Modi.

He added, “Under PM Modi, unemployment became the highest in 42 years. Prices of petrol and diesel increased while the cost of medicines for kidney ailments, cancer and tuberculosis also increased considerably.”

The AAP leader alleged that “Modiji has only one slogan: Lie, make false promises, take votes from the people of this country and rule over them.”

“If you are distributing ration to 80 crore people, then you are somewhere accepting that the people have become weak under your regime,” he told PTI.

Reacting to the prime minister’s comments on fake news, the AAP’s chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said, “I agree with his statement on fake news. But it looks like he is not familiar with the ground reality as his Cabinet is responsible for most of the fake news.”

“If he is worried about fake news, he should sack his entire cabinet,” she added.

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‘No political stability’

On Modi’s remarks about his government providing political stability, DMK leader TKS Elangovan said there is no political stability and equanimity in this country at present.

RJD MP and spokesperson Manoj Jha took a swipe at the BJP over Prime Minister Modi’s remarks in the interview about tackling the menace of fake news, saying the “BJP will collapse like a pack of cards if fake news is reined in”.

Jammu and Kashmir Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool claimed that there has not been any positive change in the country under the BJP and only inflation and unemployment have risen.

BJP hails PM Modi

However, BJP leaders hailed the prime minister for his visionary leadership.

“There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that India under PM Modi over the last nine years and India’s G20 presidency are big milestones in the country’s rise on the global stage,” Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Prime Minister Modi’s ‘India soon to be in top three world economies’ remark.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said PM Modi has transformed the talent pool to the advantage of a rising nation of 140 crore people.

(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)