If India’s Shining it’s despite Govt, counters Cong

Sibal said the GDP would have been 10 per cent if the Congress was in power. ‘‘If India is shining, it is so despite the BJP. If India is growing it is because of the people of this country and not the BJP,’’ Sibal said.

Quoting official figures, he said investment in various employment generation schemes has only decreased in the last five years. According to him, the workforce in industrial sector is 17.6 per cent, in service sector 26 per cent and in agriculture sector it is 57 per cent.

‘‘Therefore, employment will grow only when there is growth in the agricultural sector. But the growth rate in this sector has been in negative figures for the past three years and today it is an aggregate of two per cent. That is because of a 14 per cent growth rate this year because of good monsoons,’’ he said.

‘‘This cannot have an impact on employment growth because the actual growth rate in agricultural sector is zero,’’ he added. ‘‘Vajpayee had himself said in Parliament in 2002 that job opportunities were declining in heavy industries and would further go down in view of new technology and that his government was taking steps to meet the situation,’’ he said. ‘‘How can the Government then promise one crore jobs every year?’’ he asked. Calling BJP figures for India Shining campaign ‘‘bogus,’’ he said jobs abroad for Indians are also declining in view of the government’s faulty policies, like that on outsourcing.