Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks that selling ‘pakodas’ was a kind of employment, and claimed that India was actually witnessing “a jobless growth”.
In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said the Modi dispensation was “clueless” on how to create jobs and cautioned people against an “assault on our commonsense by wild claims of job creation by the Government”.
“Even selling pakodas is a ‘job’ said PM. By that logic, even begging is a job. let’s count poor or disabled persons who are forced to beg for a living as ‘employed’ people... The truth is India is witnessing a three year spell of modest, but jobless, growth and the Government is clueless about how to create jobs,” he said.
Modi, in a recent interview to a television channel, reportedly said, “If a person selling pakodas (snacks) earns Rs 200 at the end of the day, will it be considered employment or notIJ”