BJP govt attacked unorganised sector, wants to make people slaves: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is continuing with his 'explainer' videos. If his initial videos featured interactions with economic and policy experts on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the later ones were monologues on the Narendra Modi government's policy towards China on Ladakh.

On Monday, Rahul released a video on the Modi government's economic policies. The video appeared to have been prompted by the comment of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week that the economic downturn was an "act of God".

In the description to the video, Rahul wrote the country was going through a heavy recession for the first time in 40 years.

In the video, Rahul claimed, "the BJP government has attacked the unorganised sector and wants to make people slaves". Referring to the worldwide recession of 2008, Rahul claimed that he had met then prime minister Manmohan Singh, an economist, to understand why India was not adversely impacted by the crisis. Rahul said Manmohan explained that "to understand India's economic system, understand that there are two economies in India: The organised economy and the unorganised economy".

Emphasising the importance of the unorganised sector that comprises farmers, labourers, vendors and small and medium industries, Rahul said "No economic storm could hit India's economy as long as the unorganised sector was strong."

Rahul alleged, "In the last six years, the BJP government has attacked the unorganised sector." He claimed demonetisation, "wrong" GST and the COVID-19 lockdown were examples of this approach. Rahul alleged there was a motive behind the hasty enforcement of the COVID-19 lockdown.

He said the aim of demonetisation, GST and lockdown was to "end the unorganised sector". Rahul declared, "There was lakhs of crores of rupees in the unorganised sector... which the government wants to take".

Rahul claimed the impact of destruction of the unorganised sector was that India would not be able to create jobs. Rahul had recently warned that India could face mass unemployment in "six-seven" months as the unorganised sector accounted for 90 per cent of employment in India.

Declaring that there was a "conspiracy" against the unorganised sector, Rahul said the entire country should unite and fight on this issue.