Modi govt's '80 mn new jobs' claim is fake: Cong

New Delhi : The Congress on Monday dismissed as "half-truths" the government's assertions of creating eight crore employment opportunities between 2021 and 2024 and 6.2 crore net subscribers joining the EPFO database, and said no "spin-doctoring" can take away from the fact that 2014-24 has seen "job loss growth".

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that amidst the "U-turns and scandals" that have marked the last few months of this "tottering" government, "the non-biological PM and his drum beaters have tried to find some solace in their economic record, claiming to have created eight crore employment opportunities between 2021 and 2024".

"This claim initially emerged from the RBI KLEMS data, which we had earlier countered on July 15th, 2024. The Government's spin doctors have now mustered another statistic - that of 6.2 crore net subscribers joining the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) database between September 2017 and March 2024. Both claims are based on half-truths," he said in a statement.

To justify its claim of eight crore new jobs, the government adopts an expansive definition of employment, without registering the quality and circumstances of employment, Ramesh argued.

A large part of the claimed "employment growth" is recording unpaid household work done by women as "employment", he said, adding that it is not new job creation.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government of working for industrialists, and claimed that money keeps flowing into the account of Gautam Adani "like a tsunami" while the common man struggles. He also asserted that the Congress will form a government in Haryana and bring about a change.

The Congress leader said it is important to see how much money is going into the pockets of poor and common people and how much is going out. "You have to ask this whether more money is going out of your pockets or more is coming into your pockets," he said. "Think about Adani ji. He wakes up in the morning, he does not work in farm, he does not use a plough, does not work in small business, eats good food, lives in palatial house and every morning, for 24 hours, in his bank account, money keeps coming in, non-stop.