Eye on youth, Rahul Gandhi reveals Congress’s 5 Lok Sabha promises – govt vacancies to start-ups to gig work

“Second, we brought the right to employment (under MGNREGA). Similarly, we are now going to give a right to apprenticeship to all the youth. Every graduate or diploma holder will be eligible for this right. What is this right? That immediately after every college or university (course), every graduate will get a year-long apprenticeship in a private company or government office and be given Rs 1 lakh for the same,” Rahul said. He said that like MGNREGA, it will be backed by law: “This will help crores of youth across the country.”

Third, he said, the party will bring a law to check paper leaks where there will be a standardised format to conduct examinations. Under this, there will be no outsourcing to private companies.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge with Rahul Gandhi in Banswara, Thursday. (PTI)

Fourth, he said that the gig workers law passed by the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan last year will be implemented nationally. The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act extends certain “rights” to gig workers, such as being registered with the state, having access to general and specific social security schemes, and having an opportunity to be heard for any grievances, among several other measures. Rahul said that the idea behind the law is protecting gig workers and ensuring their social security.

Fifth, he said that the “Narendra Modi government did ‘Start Up India’ and ‘Make in India’, which benefited only 2-3 billionaires. So, Rs 5,000 crore will be set aside for a Start Up fund. This fund will be available in every district.” This scheme will be named Yuva Roshni.

Rahul said the biggest issue which had come up during his 2022-23 Bharat Jodo Yatra was unemployment, and the youth complained to him about joblessness and paper leaks.

Beyond these five promises, Rahul said that the party will implement a Minimum Support Price (MSP) law. “We have taken a revolutionary step for farmers in our manifesto (where), for the first time in Hindustan, we have given a legal guarantee for MSP. The farmers who are walking towards Delhi and are being stopped on the roads, we have fulfilled their demand in our manifesto.”

Rahul also urged the marginalised communities to “realise” their strength.

He said that about 90 per cent of the Indian population is comprised of SCs, STs, backwards and minorities. “On top of that you add 5 per cent poor of the general castes. But if we look at the Indian institutions, the budget, the money (flow), there is no participation of these people. I ask you, you are Adivasis, and the president is an Adivasi. The Ram temple was inaugurated, did you see her face on the television? Why not? Because she is an Adivasi. Did you see any poor, farmers, labourers in the Ram temple inauguration?” Rahul asked in the tribal dominated Banswara, where all five Assembly constituencies are reserved for STs.

He said that there are two Indias, one of five per cent and the other of the rest.

“And be it any area, you won’t find Dalits, Adivasis and the backwards anywhere,” he said, claiming that none of the top 200 Indian companies is owned by a tribal, “I have checked, I took out a list of all of them, of their senior management…”

Pushing for a caste census, he said, “If we want to progress, we will have to take a historic step. Like when you are injured, a doctor tells you to get an X-ray, similarly Hindustan’s poor, the Dalit, Adivasis, backwards and the general caste poor are being hurt, so an X-ray needs to be done,” he said, referring to the caste census.