The opposition has been trying to grasp at straws when it comes to criticising the Modi government. They had been trying to condemn the current government on the Rafale deal or the farmer issues but seeing as though the NDA government was not involved in corruption scams, when none of this seemed to work. Thereafter, they have come up with another clever tactic- to blame the current government on the unemployment sphere. Hoping to make it the centerpiece to their campaign against PM Modi in 2019, the opposition had tried to corner the government over unemployment issue alleging that the government was hiding the unemployment data.
The latest opinion poll released by Times NOW and VMR on March 18 has portrayed unemployment to be biggest issue for the upcoming elections, with over 40.2% of the voters concerned about it. At first glance this may seem to be a setback for the Modi government; however, close analysis of the survey gives the actual reality.
Forty percent of the surveyed people believe that unemployment issue is in fact improved and job losses are less than the previous UPA regime. Moreover, 36% people feel that the job losses, if any are just regular losses, not stemming from any political involvement and cannot be a factor for the current government’s criticism.
Overall, close to 80 percent of the surveyed people believe that the unemployment issue, if it exists, is not to be attributed to the NDA government. The findings reveal that the opposition has dreadfully failed to make a relevant issue count. The opposition has been trying to make the job situation an issue among the voters and has failed miserably at it. Earlier, 108 economists had come together, questioning the credibility of India’s official data said, “Narendra Modi government is revising or withholding the release of unfavourable economic data”, with regard to employment surveys. In a befitting response to this, 131 prominent chartered accountants have busted the myth made by self-acclaimed intellectuals by stating in a letter, “The data is being published even by independent organizations and international agencies including World Bank and IMF, confirming India’s growth story”.
“More than a lack of jobs, the issue is a lack of data on jobs. Our opponents will naturally exploit this opportunity to paint a picture of their choice and blame us,” said PM Modi in an interview with Swarajya magazine. Unfortunately for the opposition, the voters have completely rejected the pseudo unemployment issue created by the opposition. First they tried to influence the votes by alleging that the employment data is being withheld and when the allegation backfired, they alleged that “people feel there is unemployment prevalent”. Moreover, what is even worse for them is that their other most important issue, the corruption charges on the Rafael deal has very little resonance among the voters. Less than 3% of the voters surveyed had an issue because of it. Perhaps this goes on to show that the citizens abide by the Supreme Court’s authority unlike Rahul Gandhi, who seriously doubts the apex court’s ability to take decisions.
India is a developing country with the second largest population in the world. No doubt, the competition is high and it requires one to have highly qualified skills to get well paying jobs but that is a natural process and not something one can blame PM Modi for. Besides, the majority in the group feel that the job losses have even reduced from before. The survey reveals just how much the allegations have back-fired for the opposition. The opposition has tried to capitalise on the recent controversies around unemployment data, which hasn’t been able to make a dent on PM Modi’s image.