"Congress Let Unemployment Fester For Long Time": Rajnath Singh To NDTV

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in an exclusive interview to NDTV pointed out the issue of unemployment has been around for a long time, from when the Congress was in power.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over, many "unparalleled" steps have been taken to reduce unemployment and create jobs, Mr Singh said.

He said one of the reasons why unemployment lingered on for so long was due to inactivity by previous governments to solve the problem.

"The problem of unemployment has existed for a long time, as long as when the Congress was in power. The Congress never did anything to solve it," Mr Singh told NDTV.

"They (Congress) should have recognised this huge problem and taken effective steps, but they never did. I can say with confidence that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came, many steps have been taken to solve the problem of unemployment," Mr Singh said.

He said compared to the past, data shows unemployment has gone down under the leadership of PM Modi.

The unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above in urban areas declined to 6.7 per cent in the January-March period from 6.8 per cent a year ago, according to the National Sample Survey (NSSO) earlier this month.

Unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed people in the labour force.

The unemployment rate in the March quarter of FY23 was 6.8 per cent, while it was 6.6 per cent in April-June as well as in the third quarter (July-September 2023) of the previous fiscal. It was 6.5 per cent in October-December 2023.