NEW DELHI: Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'eight crore new jobs created' remark, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday urged him to "stop diverting attention" and ensure new opportunities for the country's youth.
Her remarks came after a stampede-like situation occurred near the Mumbai airport where thousands of job aspirants gathered to apply for a limited number of vacancies for the post of loader at the facility.
The incident took place on Tuesday morning and the situation was later brought under control, an official from the Sahar police station said.
In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said, "A few days ago, the prime minister was saying in Mumbai that we have broken records by providing employment to so many crores of people.
Today, a video of a huge crowd of unemployed people who had come to the same Mumbai for a few vacancies is going viral.
Before this, 15 lakh unemployed people had come to a hotel in Gujarat for 25 vacancies and a stampede-like situation had developed."
"This shows that the record has definitely been broken, but of extreme unemployment. The country is facing historic unemployment," said the Congress general secretary.
"I appeal to the prime minister to please stop making empty promises and diverting attention and think about the youth of the country.
The promising youth, who are getting old, need crores of new opportunities," she said.
The Congress leader's remarks come days after Prime Minister Modi last week emphasised that creation of eight crore new jobs in the last three to four years has "silenced" those spreading fake narratives about unemployment.
Quoting a recent report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the employment figure, the prime minister had asserted the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime continues to prioritise stability and growth and added that small and big investors have welcomed his government's third term with enthusiasm.
During an event launching projects costing Rs 29,000 crore in road, railway and port sectors, Modi took a swipe at the opposition parties for "spreading misinformation" on job creation, labelling them as hindrances to progress.
The Congress on Monday countered the Centre's claim that eight crore new jobs have been created, alleging that the government has done some "artful statistical jugglery" to claim job creation as it has failed to pay attention to the "quality and circumstances" of employment.