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Updated: Feb 23, 2019 23:52 IST

The Modi government is not willing to accept that there is an “employment crisis” in the country, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said at an interaction with students on Saturday.

Talking about the job crunch, one of the key Opposition planks against the National Democratic Alliance government ahead of the general elections, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be discussing the issue with the youngsters.

But “our current government does not even want to accept that there is employment crisis,” he said at the Congress-sponsored event, Shiksha: Dasha Aur Disha, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Auditorium.

Targeting Modi over economic policy, Gandhi alleged that the country’s wealth was “concentrated” in the hands of “a few people” and that “for the last five years, ₹3,50,000 crore worth loans of 15-20 big businesses have been waived”.

“All works are being done to help 15-20 industrialists. The thinking is clear that the government does not want to spend money on education. The government wants students to spend money on education. The industrialists are being helped through the privatisation of this sector,” he said. “Our thinking is that the government should help in the education and health sectors.”

He said that the state must fund a large part of students’ education and more money should be allocated for education than has been done. He recalled the moment when he hugged Modi in Parliament last year.

BJP refused to comment over it.