#MainBhiBerozgar trends on Twitter:  Where are the jobs, Prime Minister?

The hashtag #MainBhiBerozgar (I too am unemployed) trended at the top of the micro blogging site on Saturday. This followed a statement by the Congress President that while every Prime Minister had created new jobs, Narendra Modi would be known as the first and the only Prime Minister to have destroyed even existing jobs.

The campaign on social media apparently took off to mock BJP’s campaign “MainBhiChowkidar” (I too am a security guard), which was launched on Saturday as the centrepiece of BJP’s poll campaign. The campaign was designed as a response to the Congress President’s familiar jibe ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ .

During his campaign before the 2014, Narendra Modi had offered to serve the nation as a ‘Chowkidar’. Following unanswered questions on the Rafale deal (reducing the number of planes from 126 to only 36, dumping public sector HAL in favour of a two-week old company of Anil Ambani, the higher prices for fewer planes etc.), the Congress hit back at Modi with the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ campaign.

But on the social media site, BJP’s counter campaign of involving everyone with merchandise and social media campaign with the hashtag #MainBhiChowkidar ( I too am a Chowkidar) appeared to have recoiled following the campaign to focus on growing unemployment in the country.

Prime Minister Modi, his Government and BJP supporters, however, have been claiming that there is no crisis of jobs. PM Modi himself had famously said that jobs were there but data on jobs were not.

The Modi Government actually suppressed job data and put the results of the NSSO survey on hold. The report, however, got leaked and the findings were supported by the Centre for Monitoring Indian economy (CMIE).

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram tweeted on Saturday and asked, “According to the NSSO, 4 crore 70 lakh jobs have been lost. Why? Will Mr Modi answer?

Job losses have been most pronounced for casual workers in rural India, and women in both rural and urban India. These two, arguably, comprise the two most deprived sections of India’s work force.

According to the NSSO data, casual farm jobs declined between 2011-12 and 2017-18 by three crore and total rural jobs (including non-farm work) fell by 3.2 crore during the same period. New rural jobs were created in the form of wage and salaried employment, but only to the tune of 0.8 crore. The CMIE job data for 2018 revealed that 1.1 crore jobs were lost in 2018, out of which 0.88 crore were for women and 0.22 crore for men.

Twitter users savaged the Prime Minister’s claims and campaign and declared,

• While @narendramodi brags about the various job portfolios he holds from a chaiwala to chowkidar and sometimes even the PM, more than 36 lakh people with graduate degrees find it hard to get even a single job
• Industrial growth is at a low of 1.7 per cent (down from 7.5%, a year ago). Household savings are at a 20-year low. FDI growth is at a 5-year low. Core sector growth is at a 2-year low.
• It's important to accept we have an agriculture & job crisis.These have to be resolved. Living in denial will not solve our problems. Our political discourse must be centred around finding solutions."

• India is the only country in the world where- 3,700 PhD holders apply for Peon jobs. 4000 MBAs & Engineers apply for 14 sweeper jobs. 82 lakh PGs & Engineers apply for helper jobs. In 5 years, PM #Modi has destroyed the future of India's educated youth!
• India is in such shabby hands that more than 35% Women Graduates & 10% Men Graduates suffer from Unemployment!
• The stark reality is that leave alone creating new jobs, the @narendramodi government has snatched away jobs, by neglecting labour intensive sectors such as textiles, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
• Ironically ... #Modi has failed to even fill Central government vacancies . Though that was in his direct control. Hindutva/Nationalism is farce , if there is no job to arrange bread and butter.