Rahul Gandhi meets small and medium business owners over lunch, attacks Modi govt for rising unemployment

In what is seen as a political-counter to PM Modi’s radio show “Man Ki Baat,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi has launched an interactive outreach programme “Apni Baat Rahul Ke Saath” ahead of the Lok Sabha election 2019.

As a part of this programme, the Congress president met owners of small and medium business in Delhi on Tuesday and discussed issues ranging from GST to the rising unemployment to the GDP growth over South Indian lunch.

He also discussed problems faced by small and medium business owners at length during the interaction.

As per Congress sources, the Congress president assured business community to get their concerns incorporated in the party’s manifesto.

''Everybody talks about growth, India is growing at 6 per cent...7 per cent? But nobody talks about jobs. Where are the jobs? Can you have growth with no jobs? This is what is happening right now,'' said Rahul Gandhi.

While speaking about the faulty GST and lack of jobs, Rahul targeted Modi government over crony capitalism also.

"The government, today, is funding a handful of big corporates, but they are not producing jobs. The small businesses are producing jobs. But you don't get the funding you want. How many jobs did Nirav Modi give India," he asked referring to the absconding scamster.

Stressing the need to provide assistance to small and medium businesses, Rahul compared India’s situation with China. He said, "Nobody can compete with China except us. And, there's a huge amount of wealth and benefit that can be made, if we do it successfully. And, I think, the people who can do it are the people like you. Because you are the people who can create jobs."

Rahul Gandhi had earlier interacted with seven students from across the country over dinner as part of the outreach initiative.