The experts opine that the key issue of unemployment remained missing even during the recent interim budget before elections. They said that the government has failed to provide relief to the farmers as well as were short at meeting the expectations of the middle-class voters.
The issue of unemployment has become politically sensitive after media reports claimed the country's unemployment rate rose to a 45 year high of 6.1 percent in 2017-18, quoting the periodic labour force survey (PLFS) done by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) despite the government rejecting the findings of this data and calling it "incomplete".
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Prof Prabhat Patnaik, Marxist economist and political commentator, said, "The government is now suppressing the unemployment data. This is something which is now very well known. It has been stated openly in the Parliament, the estimate committee itself has taken a view, which is an adverse view of the government on this particular issue. The reason why the government is suppressing the data is because unemployment situation now is worse than in any time in recent memory. The recent Shimla Bureau data seems to suggest that unemployment today is much worse than in the recent past. The government promised that they're going to create a lot of employment, so this is very embarrassing, and that too just before the elections."
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Hours after media published the leaked report of NSSO survey, the government released revised figures showing a surprising growth in the GDP, reaching at 7.2 percent, in the year 2017-18.
