BJP, Samajwadi Party Trade Barbs As Jobs Chorus Grows In UP Poll Run-Up

Dibyendu Mani, 26, was among the hundreds detained today during a march in Lucknow to protest against unemployment, which has emerged as a key issue in the run up to the 2022 Assembly elections in politically-significant Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Mani is an activist with Yuva Halla Bol, which describes itself as a nationwide youth movement against unemployment. Besides demanding jobs, Mr Mani and others, who were marching to the state Assembly, also want accountability fixed for a recent paper leak that affected 20 lakh job aspirants after an exam to recruit teachers in 50,000 government posts was cancelled.

Before being pushed into a police van, Mr Mani told NDTV that he and many others are staring at an uncertain future. "Employment is the biggest issue. We can see only darkness in front of us. I am 26 but still appearing in exams. The UP government's claim of creating 4.5 lakh jobs in the past five years is not true, it is just 'jumlebaazi'. The government did come out with some police vacancies, but there have been no more vacancies. They must be adding the MGNREGA employment numbers to this figure," he claimed.

In its 2017 manifesto, the BJP had promised to create 70 lakh employment or self-employment opportunities if it was voted to power. Now, with months to go for the state polls, top party leaders, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, are talking about creating 4.5 lakh government jobs.

"We have given employment to about 4.5 lakh people in different departments of the state. No one can raise a question on any of these appointments. We have made more appointments in our four-and-a-half years tenure than all governments between 2002 and 2017," the Chief Minister said at a government event last month.

Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party Chief who appears to be the main challenger to the ruling BJP in the upcoming election, has accused the Chief Minister of lying. "This government is very efficient at lying. This is not a strong government, but it is very strong at spinning lies. Were the young not promised jobs and employment? But the government has completed 4.5 years and now no one can even dream of jobs. This government has shattered all the dreams of the youth," Mr Yadav said at a rally in Banda, part of the state's underdeveloped Bundelkhand region.

On social media, many BJP supporters have cited data from independent think-tank Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) to claim that Uttar Pradesh's unemployment rate is down from 17.5 per cent in 2017 -- when the BJP came to power -- to 4.2 per cent now.

But CMIE 's data actually shows that the unemployment rate in the 25-29 years age group has almost doubled in four years -- from 7.9 per cent between January and April 2017 to 13.34 per cent between May and August 2021.

Even before the pandemic, the state's unemployment rate went from 3.8 per cent just before the BJP came to power to 8.5 per cent at the end of 2019 when the Yogi Adityanath government was midway through its term.