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Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi on Monday strongly criticized privatization in India, highlighting its adverse impact on employment and accessibility to essential services. Addressing the ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ rally in Mhow, Gandhi questioned how job opportunities would be available for the masses when even graduates from premier institutions like IITs and IIMs were struggling to find employment.
He pointed out that people increasingly rely on private hospitals for healthcare and private institutions for education but raised concerns about who ultimately controls this privatization. Highlighting flaws in the education system, Gandhi remarked that it had been reduced to a mere certification process where parents spend large sums hoping for employment opportunities for their children.
"Who is the owner of the privatization of the education and health system? The Indian education system is a system of stamps, a system of certification. Crores of people think that after such certifications, after paying lakhs of rupees to the billionaires, their children will get employment. This is a blatant lie. Your children cannot get employment in this country, no matter what they do... The billionaires have destroyed the employment system of the country... If students from IIT or IIM are not getting employment, how will you get it?" he said.
Taking aim at the government's economic policies, Gandhi linked the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation to a strategy that disproportionately affects the poor while benefiting corporate giants. He alleged that industrialists such as Adani and Ambani continue to amass wealth at the cost of employment for the common people.
"Don't forget that the more Adani and Ambani grow, the more money these billionaires get, the fewer jobs your children will get. Demonetisation and GST are weapons to eliminate India's poor population. Common people pay the same amount of GST as Adani Ambani pays... Narendra Modi waived off Rs 16 lakh crore of billionaires' loans. But were the debts of farmers, labourers, and students waived off? You pay GST and Adani and Ambani sell Chinese goods in India. People in China get employment and those jobs are stolen from your children's hands..." he asserted.
Gandhi also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of attempting to alter the Constitution framed by Dr B R Ambedkar. He alleged that their slogan of "400 paar" in the Lok Sabha elections was an indication of this intent.
"The day our Constitution is changed, there will be nothing left in the country for the backwards, Dalits, tribals," he warned. He further assured that Congress' ‘Babbar Shers’ would stand firm to protect the Constitution from the BJP and RSS.