New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, addressed the Parliament on Monday and highlighted the employment issues of the country. He said the central government has not been able to give a clear reply to youth on employment.
“I must say, I struggled through the President’s address to maintain my attention on what was being said because I had heard pretty much the same President’s address the last time and the time before that. It was the same laundry list of the things that the government has done,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi said that any country basically organises two things: you can organise consumption, and then you can organise production. “The modern way of saying organising consumption is services. The modern way of saying organising production is manufacturing, but there is more to production than simply manufacturing. We have, as a country, failed in organising production. We have excellent companies that try to organise production…essentially what we have done is we have handed over the organisation of production to the Chinese. This mobile phone, even though we are saying we make this mobile phone in India, is not a fact. This phone is not made in India. This phone is assembled in India. All the components of this phone are made in China. We are paying a tax to China,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi on ‘Make in India’ programme
Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Modi proposed the ‘Make in India’ programme; I think it was a good idea. “The result is right in front of you; manufacturing fell from 15.3% of GDP in 2014 to 12.6% of GDP today, which is the lowest share of manufacturing in 60 years. I am not blaming the Prime Minister; it would not be fair to say that he did not try. I could say that the Prime Minister tried, but he failed,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi on China
Rahul Gandhi said that AI on its own is meaningless because it operates on data, and every single data that comes out of the production system is owned by China. He said that four technologies that are driving change in mobility include electric motors, batteries, optics, and the application of AI. Speaking further he said that at present the Chinese are in India but the Prime Minister has denied it, whereas the Army disagrees with the Prime Minister. “There are basically four technologies driving change in mobility — electric motors, batteries, optics and on top of that, application of AI. People talk about AI but AI on its own is meaningless because it operates on data. If we look at data today, every single data that comes out of the production system is owned by China,” he added.
