BENGALURU: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Karnataka, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) terming the situation of the youth in the state as an “annihilation”.
Taking on Twitter, he said, “Welcome to Prime Minister @narendramodi, who is coming to the state to inaugurate the National Youth Festival to mock the state’s youth community, which is suffering from unemployment, corruption in government appointments, neglect of the education sector and communal riots.”
He added, “Currently there are over 25 lakh unemployed people in Karnataka, 2.52 lakh jobs are lying vacant in government offices. 53,700 posts are unfilled in government schools and PU colleges. 83,190 men and women are unemployed due to closure of small scale industries.”
“In this situation, Prime Minister @narendramodi is coming to the state to inaugurate the Youth Festival. Is the Prime Minister inaugurating a youth festival or is it a youth annihilation festival?” he asked.
“1.29 lakh youths have fallen victim to the PSI recruitment scam. Rs 50-80 lakhs were extorted from each candidate for AE and JE exams. Rs 22 crores looted by corrupt officials of Railways on false promises of recruitment,” he added.
He alleged that “1,129 people committed suicide in the state being fed up with the unemployment. This may be the Gujarat model that the Chief Minister @BSBommai and his associates often grumble about.”
“If the real story of the destruction of youth power in the state @BJP4Karnataka comes to the attention of the youth from other states, Karnataka should bow down in front of the whole country,” he said.
Attacking the BJP, he further said, “History will not forget the betrayal of central and state double engine @BJP4India government most importantly to the Kannadiga youth. By refusing to conduct the central recruitment test in the regional language, the Kannadiga youth have become orphans in the land of their birth.”
“Also only 6 pc of Kannadiga employees are employed in these banks as the rural banking exam has to be written only in Hindi and English language,” he added.
“Although the Constitution has given recognition to all Indian languages, examinations in Kannada cannot be written in any centrally owned institutions, including IBPS examinations. Because of this, thousands of Kannadigas are losing their jobs in the land of Kannada itself,” he claimed.
“Even after drowning a hundred times in Kaveri and Ganges, the heroes cannot escape from the curse of the afflicted Kannadigas @BJP4India,” he said.
“The state government is giving priority to decentralization of the education sector, textbook and extra-curricular activities and not paying attention to the development of educational infrastructure. In the last 3 budgets, the grant given to the education sector has not increased above 1.97 per cent,” he further alleged.
“According to the CAG report of 2022, 1.62 lakh students have dropped out of school in 2022. 1965 government schools have been closed during 2020-21 and 2021-22,” he said.
“The @BJP4Karnataka government, which was supposed to educate the youth and make them self-reliant and use the youth power for nation building, is going to deprive them of education and use them as pawns for communal activities for their political gain,” he said.
“163 youths have died in communal riots since@BJP4Karnatakacame to power in the state,” he added.
“By cancelling the Rs 4,600 scholarship given to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, the students of this community who believe in it will cut their education in half,” he said.
Further attacking the BJP, he said “The promise @BJP4Karnataka made that Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe youth will be employed through a special recruitment scheme has been dashed.”
“Pre-SSL scholarship has been cancelled for students from classes 1 to 8. Due to the suspension of funding for the cycle scheme, there has been a decline in the attendance of about 5 lakh students in rural schools without cycle facilities,” he said.
“The government celebrating @BJP4Karnataka has not been able to provide revised textbooks to half of the students in the state,” he said.
“The Chief Minister @BSBommai often praises that the administration of the state @BJP4Karnatakais the inspiration of Hon’ble @narendramodi for eight years. A comparison of both regimes proves this @tatementto be true on the face of it,” he further added.
“@narendramodihad promised 2 crore jobs every year during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. But in 8 years new job creation has been far from done, instead 12.5 crore jobs have been taken away and helpless people have been thrown onto the streets,” he alleged.
“By April 2022, the country’s unemployment rate has risen to a record 10.79 per cent.50 lakh people have lost their jobs just because of the stupid decision of demonetisation. There are 62 lakh vacancies in central and state governments. 30 lakh jobs are vacant in central government alone,” he said.
“The Prime Minister @narendramodi, who has completely failed to eliminate unemployment, has been neglecting the education sector as well. During the period from 2014-15 to 2022-23, the grant given to the education sector has come down from 4.07 per cent to 2.64 per cent,” he added.
“India ranks 116 out of 174 countries in the World Bank Human Resource Index. It is poorer than Nepal and Bangladesh,” he said.
“Let the Prime Minister @narendramodi who has pushed the youth to the brink of destruction through unemployment and neglect of the education sector, question his conscience as to what morality he has to inaugurate the National Youth Festival,” he further added.
Notably, PM Modi will inaugurate the 26th National Youth Festival in Karnataka’s Hubbali, on January 12 at around 4 pm.
The programme is being held on National Youth Day, which is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand, to honour and cherish his ideals, teachings and contributions. (ANI)