Punjab’s Congress MPs on Monday returned the “charkha”, that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gifted to the Punjab youth about two years back, as a mark of protest against the Central Government for its failure to provide job opportunities to the youngsters.
Modi, during a programme of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) at ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University in October 2016, had distributed 500 traditional wooden charkhas to women spinners belonging to the five local Khadi institutions.
Punjab Congress president and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar, accompanied by Jalandhar MP Santokh Chaudhary, Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujla and ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, said that the Modi government has come to power with the promise of generating two crore jobs every year, but even it failed to provide two lacks job annually.
“Responding to the no confidence motion, the Prime Minister gave a long lecture but did not address the key issues related to the youngsters,” he said.
Jakhar said that in name of giving employment opportunities to the youngsters, Central Government was playing a cruel joke on them. “The Central Government is running away from its duty of giving employment opportunities to the young generation passing out from IIT, ITI, polytechnic and other higher technical institutes,” he added.
He said that Modi had come to ludhiana on October 18, 2016, and in name of employment generation has distributed 500 charkhas. “Punjabi youngsters are those full of valor and bravery guarding the borders of nation. Instead, they should be given employment opportunities as per their qualifications so the ‘charkhas’ have been returned to the Central Government,” he said.
PPCC president said that the BJP was anti-youngsters in Punjab. “If the government did not provide enough employment opportunities to the youngsters, it will have to face dire consequences in future. Due to these reasons, there is resentment in the young generation, which would lead to defeat of BJP in the forthcoming lok Sabha elections,” he added.