New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "failed" the country's daughters by "rewarding" sexual harassment accused BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh with a Lok Sabha poll ticket for his son, and asked whether women will ever be safe in "Modi's India".
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions to Prime Minister Modi ahead of his visit to Ayodhya. "Will women ever be safe in Modi's India? Why did the PM lie to Ayodhya about 'free' electricity under the Surya Ghar Yojana? Why has UP's youth given up on the job market?" Ramesh said on X.
Elaborating on what he said were "jumla details", Ramesh said PM Modi has once again "failed" India's daughters. "Rather than punishing MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for his heinous crimes, the BJP has rewarded him with a ticket for his son Karan Bhushan Singh, from the neighbouring Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat," the Congress general secretary said.
"This has come as a slap in the face to (of) all the women who put their careers at stake and slept on the streets for days, through sun and rain, in their fight for justice," he said.
Ramesh said it has become clear that in "Modi ka Parivar", 'Nari Shakti' is just a slogan that is projected while the 'parivar (family)' shelters perpetrators of sexual violence, be it Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna or Singh, the former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president.
"Will women ever be safe in Modi's India? Will the PM's hunger for power always be more important than the safety of India's daughters?" the Congress leader said.
Ramesh also alleged that the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana is PM Modi's "latest jumla". "In their Ayodhya rallies, the BJP had boasted (about) '24-hour electricity, zero electricity bill, and earning from electricity from their free solar power scheme. In reality, however, citizens need to shell out at least Rs 70,000 to install solar panels before they can benefit from the 'free electricity' that the PM had promised," he claimed.
Which is why in Kaushalpuri Colony in Ayodhya, meant to be Uttar Pradesh's first "solar city", only a few families have actually been able to afford solar panels, Ramesh said. Why has the BJP "deceived" the people of Ayodhya, he asked.
He further claimed that the conditions in Uttar Pradesh's job market have gotten so bad that young people have started to give up on looking for work.
He further said, "Last year, Chief Minister Yogi promised that he would create 2 crore new jobs in the state over the next 3-4 years. This is the same promise that the Prime Minister had made in 2014 before he came to office. We know what followed - years of record unemployment and slow growth."
Ramesh cited Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data to point out that in 2023, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) -- the share of the population which is looking for work -- was just 39.5 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.
This is the lowest LFPR since 2017, including pandemic years, he said. Declining labour participation indicates that the youth have entirely given up on the job market, and are increasingly choosing to stay out of the labour force instead, Ramesh said.
"Why do the PM and his acolytes keep making empty promises to UP's youth? Do they have the vision and capability to actually deliver on these promises?" Ramesh said and asked the PM to break his "silence" on these issues.
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