Budget Session of Parliament: 'Make in India' has failed, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that the Make in India initiative has failedThe Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was speaking in the Lower House during the Motion of Thanks MoT on the Presidents address news agency ANI reportedHe also stated that he did not find anything new in the Presidents address delivered at the inauguration of the Budget sessionI heard the Presidents address I sat there with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge Ji and I listened to it I must say I struggled through the Presidents address to maintain my attention on what was being said because I had heard pretty much the same Presidential address last time the time before that and the time before that Gandhi saidIt was the same list of things the government has done Weve done this weve done that 50 or 100 things the government has done he addedI was sitting there thinking Okay Im being critical of what is being said Im saying that this is not the type of address that should be delivered Then a question came to my mind What type of Presidential address should be delivered and how would that address be different from what we heard he further suggestedBudget Session We havent been able to tackle unemploymentThe Congress leader emphasised the need to focus on the countrys production in his address and said Today I would lay out some dimensions of what an alternative address would look like what the INDIA Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance bloc would probably focus on and where we would lay emphasis The future of the country will be decided by the youth of the countrySo I think anything we say has to address them The first thing in front of us that the PM Prime Minister would accept and everyone in this room would accept is that we have grown fast we are growing now but we are still growing A universal problem we have faced is that we have not been able to tackle the problem of unemployment he addedNeither the UPA United Progressive Alliance government nor the NDA National Democratic Alliance government has given a clearcut answer to youth unemployment I dont think anybody will disagree with that Gandhi statedHe also pointed out that the share of production in the GDP Gross Domestic Product has decreased from 153 per cent in 2014 to 126 per cent in 2025 ANI reportedThe PM proposed the Make in India programme I think it was a good idea we saw the statue we saw the logo we saw the investment and the result is right in front of you Manufacturing fell from 153 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 126 per cent of GDP today That is the lowest share of manufacturing in history he stated adding that he would not blame this on the Prime Minister as it would be unfair to say that the effort was lackingGandhi stated that Make in India was a good idea but it is pretty clear that it failedMust focus on production says Rahul GandhiI would not blame this on the Prime Minister it is unfair to say that he did not try I think the Prime Minister tried and I think conceptually Make in India was a good idea but it is pretty clear that it failedThe first question the alternative vision would answer to the youth of our country is how to solve this problem of employment Any country essentially organises two things you can organise consumption and you can organise production he addedPretty much every government since 1990 has done a decent job in consumption But as a country we have failed in organising production he said in his speechThe record of the country in organising production is dismal and essentially what we have done is hand over the organisation of production to China Even though we say we make this phone in India its not a fact This phone is not made in India its assembled in India the Leader of Opposition added holding up his phone in the Lok SabhaAll the components of this phone are made in China The network that is produced is made in China So whenever we use a phone or wear a Chinese tshirt or a Bangladeshi tshirt or wear a pair of Chinese sneakers we are paying tax to China because some Chinese youngster is earning to make that product So the first message I would give in a Presidential address is to focus completely on production he stated adding that if the focus is not on production but only on consumption there will be a huge deficit increase in inequality and other serious problemsI would like to tell all the youngsters of the country that there is an exciting revolution taking place The heart of the changing world is that we are moving from the world of the internal combustion engine to electric motors We are moving from petrol to batteries We are moving to wind solar and potentially nuclear energy the Congress leader further saidAccording to ANI he also highlighted that the then Congress government rode the computer revolutionThe last time there was a revolution it was the computer revolution The government of India had a clear focus we looked at that revolution It was a Congress government and we decided we were going to focus on the development of software and we rode that wave of that revolution Today you can see the result I remember people laughing Gandhi statedHe also spoke about the RussiaUkraine war and said I said that the revolution is going to change everything A war is going on in Ukraine The actual war is between an internal combustion machine and the motorThe electric motor is inside the drone and the machine is in the tank If you look at whats going on in Ukraine the tanks are dying by the thousands while small drones are destroying the tanks and the entire artillery of Russia and Ukraine the Leader of the Opposition addedWith ANI inputs