Odisha BJP leader sparks off controversy for comments on Nehru's early policies

Due to faulty policies of Nehru, only 2.5 per cent of the population of the country are skilled, Singh said and added that 96 per cent of people of developed nations are skilled.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi received by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Bandaranayake at the Sri Lankan airport. | Express Archives

BHUBANESWAR: The statement of BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Giriraj Singh that faulty education policy of first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru failed to create the required skilled manpower in the country sparked off a controversy on Friday.

“The policies of Nehru were wrong as these could not make us skilled. The policies only made us educated,” Singh, who was here to inaugurate a national conference on ‘Youth and Employment: The role of skill India Initiative’,” told mediapersons.

Union MSME Minister Giriraj Singh (centre) releasing a souvenir at the event | Express

Due to faulty policies of Nehru, only 2.5 per cent of the population of the country are skilled, Singh said and added that 96 per cent of people of developed nations are skilled. He said the biggest challenge before the country now is to create employment for youths.

“This is the biggest problem today because the population of the size of Australia gets added to India every year. Therefore, we need to create skilled manpower in order to make them employable,” he said.
Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take forward both Odisha and India. The Centre is now streamlining all the policies for skill development of youths, he said.

Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra, however, criticised BJP for doing cheap politics. Asking BJP to refrain from such type of politics, he said, “The BJP has no moral rights to criticise Nehru who was a great leader.”