Rahul greets Modi on birthday, then tweets on National Unemployment Day

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 70th birthday.

Rahul tweeted, "Wishing PM Narendra Modi ji a happy birthday." The two leaders, while bitter political rivals, have had a habit of greeting each other on their birthdays.

Two hours after the birthday greetings, Rahul took aim at the Modi government over the economic situation. Rahul appeared to voice support for the 'National Unemployment Day' campaign announced by several youths to use Modi's birthday to highlight the government's economic policies, which they claimed had failed to create jobs.

Rahul tweeted, "Massive unemployment has forced the youth to call today #NationalUnemploymentDay. Employment is dignity. For how long will the Govt deny it?"

Since midnight, National Unemployment Day has been among the top Twitter trends in India. By 10.30am, as many as 15,47,000 tweets had used the hashtag National Unemployment Day.

Opposition to the Modi government's economic policies had become vocal in recent weeks as disenchantment among students grew over the decision to hold the NEET and JEE despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not surprisingly, opposition Twitter handles latched on to the trend of National Unemployment Day to target the Modi government.