"Growth Without Jobs?" Rahul Gandhi Asks Centre During Outreach Programme

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said today that the government is talking about growth without creating any employment and that it is "funding big guys" when small and medium entrepreneurs are the ones who can create jobs.

As part of his outreach initiative ''Apni baat Rahul ke saath'', Rahul Gandhi interacted with small and medium level businessmen. During the discussion, the common problem that emerged was "poor GST implementation and the monthly reporting mandated by its implementation", a statement said.

Mr Gandhi has repeatedly hit out at the government over the implementation of the GST, terming it "Gabbar Singh Tax".

"When you listen to TV debates, everybody talks about growth, ''India is growing at 6%, 7%, 8%'', but nobody talks about jobs. Where are the jobs? You can have growth with no jobs, which is what is happening right now," he said during the interaction over lunch at Andhra Bhawan here.

Asserting that non-performing assets (NPAs) are not coming from small and medium businesses, the Congress President alleged that th government is funding the big guys, but they are not producing jobs. "How many jobs did Nirav Modi give India? Not much. But India gave him Rs 35,000 crore. This is a symptom of what is going on," he said.

"Nobody can compete with China except us. There is huge amount of wealth and benefit that can be made, if we do it successfully. And, I think, frankly, the people who can do it are the people like you (small and medium business people). Because you are the people who can create jobs," he told the businessmen.

Mr Gandhi's outreach initiative started earlier this month when he met a group of seven student from Delhi, Assam, Maharashtra, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

The interaction on Tuesday included a range of business men and women, from a solar power entrepreneur to an IIT graduate, and from a small hotel owner in Kargil to an entrepreneur from Meghalaya.