Unemployment, inflation hitting hard: Opposition in Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Unemployment and inflation was hitting the people of the country hard, opposition members said in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, claiming the rosy picture being painted by the government was far removed from ground realities.

The treasury benches, however, hit back at them and said India was the fastest-growing major economy, and asked the rivals not to brandish selective facts and distorted data. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will reply to the discussion on the "economic situation in the country" on Thursday. The debate began in the Upper House on Tuesday.

"When ruling party members were speaking yesterday, it appeared as if they were from another planet. They don't know what is happening on the ground," Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party said, adding that the government was indulging only in propaganda and publicity using Prime Minister Narendra Modi's name.

"In the per capita GDP index, out of 194 nations, we are at 133. The condition of the common people shows where we stand in the world, even if we are the fifth (largest economy in the world)," Yadav said.

Mahesh Jethmalani and Dinesh Sharma of the BJP, however, countered the opposition's claims, stressing that the high growth rate being witnessed by India was translating into improved living conditions of people.

"It is the right of the opposition not merely to ask questions but to ask incisive, searching questions of the treasury benches. But equally, it behoves the opposition not to buttress their case with selective facts, planted questions and distorted data," Jethmalani said, attacking P Chidambaram of the Congress and Derek O'Brien of the TMC, who had spoken on Tuesday.

Citing data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Jethmalani said urban employment had registered "a robust V-shaped recovery" after the adverse impacts during the lockdown and second wave of the pandemic. "The unemployment rate recorded in the April-June quarter of 2023 is the lowest over the last five years," he said.

O'Brien, who had given the notice for the short-duration debate, had earlier said that India had the world's highest number of poor people at 23 crore. "This is what this debate on the economy should be about. The bottom 50% of our population possesses only 3% of the wealth," he said.

"And on a Tuesday afternoon, in this plush-looking glitzy building, we must remind ourselves why three out of four Indians cannot afford a healthy balanced diet. Or worse still, why two out of three children in India under the age of five die of hunger," he added.

Chidambaram said the "spirited and scintillating growth" had not translated into jobs. "Apart from the quantity, the quality of employment is also poor," he added.


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