The Congress party’s students’ wing NSUI on Friday launched a “Naukri Do Ya Degree Wapas Lo” (Give jobs or take back degrees) campaign, questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his tempting promise of creating two-crore jobs every year at a time unemployment has acquired dangerous dimensions.

The NSUI (National Students’ Union of India) took out a “Chhatra Adhikar March” in Delhi to mark the occasion where senior leaders of the Congress highlighted the curse of unemployment, describing the Modi government’s failure as a shocking betrayal.

The police lathicharged thousands of students from across the country who wanted to gherao Parliament, prompting Rahul Gandhi to tweet: “Students want jobs. But the government is giving police batons, water guns, anti-national tag and unemployment.”

While the students, along with NSUI president Neeraj Kundan, were taken into preventive custody, the party claimed a large number of boys and girls were injured in the unprovoked and brutal lathicharge. The party also ran a social media campaign under the hashtag #StudentsWantJobs, which trended throughout the day with lakhs of tweets. The NSUI has asked the students from across the country to join the campaign by giving a missed call to a particular number.

The speakers at the protest recalled how the Modi government refused to even accept the gravity of the situation and never demonstrated any concern for the sufferings of youth, caused by an all-time high unemployment rate, scams and delays in exams and non-recruitment after selection. The government’s decision for lateral entry into the system was described as a sinister conspiracy against lakhs of students preparing for civil services.