'India's PM is a joke,' says Rahul Gandhi, citing shrinking workforce report; Congress chief blames Modi for destroying 1 crore jobs in 2018

New Delhi: In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over reports of shrinking workforce, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his policies have “destroyed” one crore jobs last year and that “India’s PM is a joke”. Gandhi’s criticism of Modi came after an English daily quoted a government labour document to claim that the “actual size of India’s male workforce, or men who are working, has shrunk for the first time since 1993-94”. “I thought India was producing 450 jobs a day. Turns out Modi’s policies destroyed 1 crore jobs in 2018. That’s 27,000 jobs lost every single day of 2018. India’s PM is a joke,” he tweeted. [caption id=“attachment_6021271” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Twitter@INCIndia[/caption] However, the Congress chief did not elaborate how he reached at the 1 crore figure. At a rally in Manipur, Rahul Gandhi said the Prime Minister had made a promise of providing two crore jobs every year but one crore jobs were lost in 2018 alone. “This is the scale of his incompetence. It is absurd and ridiculous that the PM promises giving two crore jobs,” he alleged. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the youth, the poor and the middle-class in the country have to understand that Modi is “harmful” for employment. On the NSSO labour report quoted by the media, he said, “it is clear now that if someone has taken away jobs of the youth in the country, it is Prime Minister Modi, who claims himnself to be a chowkidar”. “The youth of the country, the poor and the middle class, working class, the poor of the country have to understand and realise that Modi ji is harmful for employment”, he said. Surjewala also alleged that the country’s “chowkidar” is responsible for “stealing” jobs with 4.7 crore youth losing employment. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also alleged that about two crore jobs were lost since Modi came to power, citing National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data. According the report, the national male workforce had shrunk from 30.4 crore in 2011-12 to 28.6 crore in 2017-18. The report has also claimed that since 2011-12, India’s national workforce shrunk by 4.7 crore, more than the population of Saudi Arabia.