Modi hai to mumkin hai but when that assurance tripped on delivery, educated youths here are taking the donkey route to a better life in the West.

Randeep Sharma, 28, a post-graduate in economics, is distraught over his inability to find a job. He is now looking for luck in the US, as he blames the Narendra Modi government for the high unemployment rate in India.

“During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP leaders in the state had claimed that Haryana’s youths would get jobs and also brides from Kashmir. But youths have neither got jobs nor brides. Things have come to such a pass that unemployed youths here are not even getting marriage proposals,” Sharma said.

Queing up outside one of the several immigration centres/travel agencies that have mushroomed in Kurukshetra town over the past few years, Sharma said he has failed to get a US visa after several attempts and has thus decided to take the “donkey route”, an illegal passage to the West.

“Modi hai to mumkin hai (Modi makes it possible),” he said sarcastically referring to BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha refrain, which had sought to paint Modi’s image as a go-getter.

His friend Sagar Rana, 25, said an immigration agent has sought ₹60 lakh to help him reach the US through the “donkey route”, a circuitous and often perilous multi-hop journey which migrants take to reach the West.

“I voted for Modiji in 2014 and 2019 hoping he would provide jobs to Hindu youths like me. He has been a big failure on this count,” Rana said.

“Modi knows he has failed to keep his promise and that’s why he no longer talks about jobs. He is indulging in useless things such as Muslims and mangalsutra to distract voters. This time, youths will vote against him,” he said.

Rana said the lack of job opportunities for educated youths in the state has forced them to seek opportunities abroad and that is why everyone is making a beeline outside immigration offices to get work visas.

A Haryana police officer said joblessness has reached unprecedented levels and illegal immigration agents are trying to make the most out of it. He recalled that in January 2023 a war of words had ensued between the Haryana government and the Opposition after the Congress highlighted a Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy report that put the state’s unemployment rate at 37.4 per cent, the highest in India.

At Durana village in Jind district, 120km from Kurukshetra, several youngsters have left for the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, over the past few years. Under a tree, a group of elderly men were seen playing cards.

“You will hardly find any youth in this village. At least one youth from every household has left the country in the last eight years. Only those who have studied up to Class XI are here,” said 62-year-old Jasbir Singh, whose only son Gurtaj, left for the US four years ago. He works in a departmental store.

Haryana votes on May 25