Centre's 70 lakh-jobs claim seems dubious, says P Chidambaram

Hyderabad: Former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday asked how many jobs the Centre had created, what kind of jobs and where they had been created.

“The claim of 70 lakh jobs created is viewed sceptically as there is a decline in growth over the last four years. Does this mean that the lower the growth more the number of jobs created, Mr Chidambaram asked at his address at Manthan, where he spoke about his book Speaking Truth to Power.

“Nobody says there was no unemployment earlier but the government in 2014 promised two crore jobs,” he pointed out.

He said the job data showed that there were 50 per cent dropouts in the country and 50 per cent youth belong to the categories of semi-skilled, skilled and highly-innovative. “Given these various spectrums, the government has to create jobs in various sectors where each of them fits,” he said.

He said that for the first time the growth in India had ‘decoupled’ from the world’s economy. This means that the economy in India is growing at a much slower rate when compared to the world economy.

That the economy was growing at a lower rate was understood by economists in the middle of 2016 but the government acknowledged it only in 2017. He said that in 2017 the government had become very intolerant to dissent which is why the truly independent voices of economists went unheeded.

He said, “If you don’t heed the voices of critics, nobody around you is going to tell you that things that are going wrong. When one criticises government, it is actually helping government. When you praise your government you are doing a disservice to your government as they have to know what is it that they also need to look into.”

A major inequality has crept into the farm sector which comprises 55 per cent of the population after demonetisation.c