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All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) general secretary Basmita Gogoi (third from left) with Nagaland Congress party workers at Hotel Saramati in Dimapur on Monday.[/caption]
Our Reporter
Dimapur, Nov. 25 (EMN): Despite India pulling out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Congress party has expressed apprehension that the BJP-led government may join the RCEP and betray the country, which may lead to economic downfall of the country.
Addressing a press conference at Hotel Saramati in Dimapur on Monday, the general secretary of All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) Basmita Gogoi said India's economy is in shambles today. "Job creation is in coma as economic and agricultural growth remains on the ventilator. Sinking economy, shirking savings, shutting down of businesses and spiralling bank frauds reflect the sad state of affairs of Indian economy under BJP government," she said.
Gogoi told reporters that the BJP government was selling India's interests at every step and bartering financial independence and economic stability. "Truth is that India was on the verge of a financial emergency and to add injury, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was proceeding to sign a mega free trade agreement in November with China and 15 other countries called RCEP, making India a dumping ground for Chinese and other foreign products and goods," she claimed.
"RCEP is an assault on India's farmers, shopkeepers, small and medium businesses. BJP government's first assault on India's economy was demonetisation, second was the implementation of a flawed GST and the third that is coming is the probable signing of the RCEP. It is for the first time in 72 years that India will be forced to sign a free trade agreement with China just because the PM and BJP want it. India's strategic interest and national security interest would be jeopardised as Chinese products would be dumped in the India markets," the general secretary opined.
Gogoi further alleged that India's trade deficit with China in 2018-19 was a whopping 70 billion US dollars; and considering the grave financial crisis, signing of RCEP agreement at this juncture would be a 'death knell for India's economy, agriculture sector as also employment generation'.
She also said the BJP was accountable for unemployment in the country and has turned India's demographic dividend into a demographic disaster. She said according to National Sample Survey Office, unemployment was at a 45-year high and was still climbing; and according to Centre for Monitoring of India Economy (CMIE), unemployment rate stands at 8.19% as of August 2019, which was the highest ever.
In addition, as per International Labour Organisation, the unemployment rate was 4.95%, which meant India's unemployment was double of the world's average.
"The state of education is even more dismal. 74% of our youth between the age of 18 to 23 do not go to college; and as per the 8th Annual All India Survey on Higher Education 2018-19, Ministry of Human Resource Development, government of India, only 2.5% colleges in India run a PhD programme," she said.
Responding to a query on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), Gogoi said, "CAB will fail in democracy but will win (in the) Parliament because of the majority of the numbers."
Nagaland Congress president K Therie, taking a jibe at the BJP, said that its members were 'unconscious members' because they 'follow what their leader PM Modi says, blindly' and that the departments receiving national awards were because of ‘paper works, without any ground reality’.
"Nagaland has been talking about politics but never about economy and it is time that the state talks about economy," Therie said.
He pointed out that funds have been centralised only in Dimapur and Kohima. Most of the youths, he said, are in cities and those in the state do not expect justice because of nepotism.