Congress only sees pakora, shoe-makers, not employment: Giriraj Singh

Ahmedabad: Stating that his ministry had created four crore jobs, Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh on Tuesday took a swipe at the Congress, saying "those who eat pizzas worth Rs 30,000 cannot see a Rs 12,000 job".

"I want to show how a job is created to those who cannot see one. Those who have not seen poverty and go to learn about it at Kalavati's house in the darkness of night, say there are no jobs," he said, apparently referring to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

"We have given jobs to four crore people. It is another thing that 70 per cent of those jobs are of under Rs 12,000 (monthly salary). The world developed on the strength of skills. We were only under five per cent skilled. It was (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, who, for the first time, talked about skill-training," Singh said.

"Those who eat pizzas worth Rs 30,000 will not be able to see a job worth Rs 12,000. They can only see pakora and shoe-makers but cannot see employment," he added.

Together with loans given under the MUDRA scheme, his ministry had provided jobs to 10 crore people, the BJP leader claimed.

"I am not counting the textiles ministry and handicraft...if they (UPA) made 11 lakh people entrepreneurs between 2010 and 2014, then we have made 16 lakh people entrepreneurs," he said.

Singh was speaking at an event organised by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), where BJP president Amit Shah unveiled a "monumental steel charkha" at the Sabarmati Riverfront Park.

The Union minister also attacked the Congress over Mahatma Gandhi and said, "Those who came to power after Independence exploited Gandhi politically, but buried his policies."

"After Modi came to power, he created an environment to promote Khadi and the charkha," he said, adding that the NDA government was working to bring the charkha and solar power together under the Solar Charkha Mission, which will provide jobs to five crore women.

Speaking on the occasion, Shah alleged that the institutions promoting Khadi had almost disappeared and become hubs of corruption during the Congress rule.

"It was only after Modi became the chief minister of Gujarat that Khadi sales increased by 300 per cent and the Khadi institutions revived.

"The journey of 'Khadi for Nation' to 'Khadi for Fashion' is a journey from Gandhiji to Narendra Modi. Narendrabhai helped Khadi leap four generations," he said.

The box to cultivate bees for "sweet revolution" (for bee-keeping to produce honey), which will empower the villagers, would be associated with PM Modi just as Khadi was associated with Mahatma Gandhi, the BJP chief added.