Amid the security lapse narrative woven around checks, frisking and intelligence inputs, Rahul Gandhi has finally asked the question others were afraid to: Why was Parliament’s security breached?
“Security has been breached. That’s a fact. But why has it happened? The biggest problem in the country is unemployment. It is boiling all over the country. India’s youth are not getting employment because of Modi’s policies. Breach has doubtless happened. But the reason behind this is unemployment and price rise,” Rahul said on Saturday, when journalists sought his reaction.
The Congress MP, who has for years been in the forefront of raising the unemployment issue, later posted this message on the social media platform X: “Where are the jobs? The youth is dejected. We have to focus on this problem; have to create jobs for the youth. Security has indeed been breached but the reason behind it is the country’s biggest concern — joblessness!”
This was a careful intervention, not an off-the-cuff remark. The Congress leader
did not defend the intrusion into Parliament, but addressed the circumstances leading up to it.
Two youths had jumped into the Lok Sabha from the visitors’ gallery on Wednesday and released yellow smoke from canisters while two others had sprayed colour oustide the Parliament gate. One of them, a woman from Haryana who holds an MPhil degree and has cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) for a teaching job, said they were jobless and had “no other way to make our voice heard”.
The mother of the suspected mastermind, Lalit Jha, said on Saturday her son was a “sona beta (good son)”. A bright student who could not study medicine on account of poverty, he did his BA and was making a living by giving tuition.
The BJP responded to Rahul’s criticism, with their IT cell chief Amit Malviya claiming that the unemployment rate was at 3.2 per cent, the lowest in six years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has gone silent on the question of jobs over the past few years, had also said recently that the unemployment rate was at its lowest.
But the latest figure from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) puts the unemployment rate at 8.8 per cent. Recruitment scams, paper leaks and piling vacancies have caused serious unrest among the youth across the country.
The intruders, now booked under the anti-terror law UAPA, have said they wanted to highlight the unemployment problem and not harm anybody through their act.
While the government and the BJP leaders have been trying to dismiss the breach as a minor incident, the Opposition combine INDIA asked how a minor incident can attract the terror law. Home minister Amit Shah has so far not made a formal statement in Parliament but spoken about it outside to a TV channel.
The BJP leaders, who have been reluctant to talk about either jobs or the gaps in Parliament's security that the breach exposed, are accusing the Opposition of politicising the matter.
Asked about this charge, Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal said: “No! Not the Opposition, only BJP and the home minister and Prime Minister are politicising it. The home minister is telling it is the issue of Parliament under the Speaker. What exactly the Delhi police has given in the court… this is a terror attack. Delhi police is under the home minister of India, isn’t it?”
Venugopal added: “Moreover, the person who recommended these boys… who is that? On one side, you are penalising all the members of Parliament, those who are raising the voice. You suspended 15 MPs. On what reason you suspended 15 MPs?”
The two youths who had entered Parliament came with passes issued by a BJP MP.
