Will Modi Help You Find A Job?

PM Narendra Modi may have found his winning mantra this election season

IF INDIA IS SEEING AN ERA OF JOBLESS growth, what should be the topmost concern for citizens and corporates? Jobs! It goes without saying that with reports suggesting unemployment at a 45-year high, the government of the day would face a backlash from the voters — especially the young voters, at the hustings.

True, the main players in the polls have come out with their respective versions of universal basic income. The Modi government has targeted marginal and small farmers with Rs 2,000 per acre of land. Rs 6,000 would be given to each small farmer annually, and such farmers are estimated to be 12 crores in the country.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, has promised Rs 6,000 to individuals with a monthly income of Rs 6,000 or less. This subsidy is targeted at 25 crore people.

Such measures, however, may get votes but are hardly a long-term solution to the unemployment crisis. The young voters — who comprise 60 percent of India — are looking for education, skills, and jobs, something that has been hard to come by lately.

Should this, then, work against Modi’s BJP when India elects a new government in April-May? Hardly! The BW-Decode survey findings, as also anecdotal evidence, suggest that an upsurge of nationalist sentiments in the wake of Pulwama / Balakot will subsume discontent on account of jobs when people go out to vote. As many as 64 percents of the voters in the country believe that Modi will come back to power. Corporate India thinks on similar lines.

Talking about Corporate India, it’s believed that industry leaders often talk in tandem with the government of the day. Adi Godrej, for instance, doesn’t buy the argument that jobs are difficult to get. He has been quoted as saying that we won’t be the fastest growing large economy otherwise.