Tejashwi Slams Nitish Over Jobs, Announces Mega Rally

Patna: Sensing the growing anger and restlessness among youths over joblessness in Bihar due to the failure of the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in fulfilling its promise of providing 19 lakh jobs during last year’s Assembly election campaigning, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has decided to hold a Berojgar Rally to mobilise the people in next February or March.

A day after several jobless youths protested against Kumar while he was addressing an election rally at Tetia Bazar, under Sangrampur block, in Tarapur constituency, on Tuesday to drum up support for his Janata Dal (United) candidate Rajiv Kumar Singh for the October 30 by-polls, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav announced on Wednesday to hold a Berojgar Rally in Patna early next year.

Tejashwi, who is also the Opposition leader in the Assembly, said that it would be the biggest-ever unemployment rally in the country, making it clear that the issue of joblessness will play an important part in state politics. When some youths protested against the chief minister and asked him about the NDA’s promise of providing 19 lakh jobs, they were arrested, he said. “What was their crime? They only dared to remind the CM of his government’s promise and said that he should resign if he cannot provide employment.”

The younger son of RJD president and former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav said that the NDA government made “a false promise to the people of Bihar because it has failed to provide jobs”, adding, “when jobless youths demanded jobs, Nitish Kumar lost his mind”.

Bihar has become a “centre of unemployment; the state government hasn’t taken any initiative to create employment opportunities. We will agitate and protest by organising a massive rally to raise the issue of unemployment”, Tejashwi said.

Tejashwi Yadav
@yadavtejashwi
3h
जल्दी ही बिहार में करेंगे देश का सबसे बड़ा “बेरोजगार रैला”
Tejashwi Yadav
@yadavtejashwi

3h
बेईमानी से सरकार बनाने के एक वर्ष बाद भी नीतीश सरकार युवाओं से किए गए 19 लाख नौकरी और रोजगार के वादे को भूल गई है।

बेरोजगार युवा जब इन्हें इनका वादा याद दिलाते है तो अलोकतांत्रिक मुख्यमंत्री बौखला कर युवाओं को जेल भिजवा देते है।

Hours after Tejashwi announced the rally, Lalu, who returned to Bihar almost three-and-a-half years after getting bail in the fodder scam cases, targeted Kumar in his first public meeting while campaigning for the RJD candidate contesting the Tarapur Assembly seat. Nitish Kumar is “creating fear among people telling the truth and jailing youths for demanding jobs. The fight for jobs and livelihood will continue”, he said.

As campaigning for the by-elections to the two Assembly seats ended on Wednesday evening , Lalu did not miss a chance to corner the NDA government over its failure to provide jobs to the people, especially the poor, who are migrating to other states.

During the campaign for the by-polls, the issues of migration and joblessness were brought to the fore by the Opposition.
Tejashwi said the NDA’s ‘double engine’ government has failed to arrest migration as it had failed to provide jobs. “This is the ground reality despite Nitish Kumar being the chief minister since 2005. He also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for its “failure to provide the promised two crore jobs a year” and countered the repeated claims made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that terrorism would end after the abrogation of Section 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Exactly a year ago, October 2020, migration and employment were the hot issues during the Bihar Assembly polls. The opposition Mahagathbandhan’s (Grand Alliance) campaign on migration, jobs and the increasing unemployment in the state resonated with voters.

Tejashwi, who was the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, promised 10 lakh government jobs to the youth of Bihar if elected. This attracted a large number of youths to his election rallies and compelled the ruling BJP, an ally of Kumar, to promise 19 lakh jobs in the next five years in its manifesto.

Joblessness in Bihar increased after last year’s lockdown forced thousands of migrant workers to return to the state, as per official data. More than half of them went back to their workplaces after the lockdown ended while many others are likely to move after the Chhath festival early next month. Interestingly, the state government has no official data of how many people are employed outside the state.