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SHRI VIJAYENDRA PAL SINGH BADNORE : Why?

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: He is only giving the statistics.

SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR : But because the economic performance in the last three years, and particularly the last year, has been much worse than in previous years, according to the Economic Survey itself, although we do not have employment generation, it is quite clear that…… (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: You are a senior Member. You should know the rules. Nothing will go on record.

(Interruptions) …* SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR : It is quite clear that the annual average rate of growth of employment in 2002-03 has dipped tragically.

MR. DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is a lot of noise in the House.

SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR : We should take a step back and consider whether the Government’s perspective is correct or not. Now, after the hon. Leader of the Opposition had made her remarks in the course of the discussion on the Motion of Thanks, the hon. Prime Minister in his reply to the debate picked up a piece of paper that was written in English and presumably to which the hon. Minister of Labour had made a contribution. I am able to read it entirely in English because in the original too he spoke in English which is given at Page 5016 of the uncorrected version. The hon. Prime Minister said in English that the net job creation in 2002-03 is nearly 84 lakh. Similarly, last year it was nearly 79 lakh jobs that were created and the year before that, more than 73 lakh jobs were created. So, the hon. Prime Minister is on record in this House in a language which he normally does not use, reading from a document that was supplied to him presumably from the official gallery and presumably with the blessings of the hon. Minister of Labour that over the last three years we have been going on creating at least 75 lakh jobs and moving up to 84 lakhs in the year when our economic performance at 4.4 per cent is the worst that India has recorded since the drought of 1987-88.

That, in itself, made one wonder whether the figures being supplied to this House were correct or incorrect. We know that the Prime Minister is a very good poet, but not such a good economist. So, I will not accuse him of misleading the House, but since the Minister of Labour must have contributed to that statement, my request to the hon. Minister of Labour is that he reconcile the statement made at his instance by the Prime Minister with the facts as set out in the Economic Survey, 2003.

Sir, on the one hand it is claimed that the net job creation, that is, jobs created minus jobs which have been cancelled, amounts to nearly 84 lakhs. Let us take it as one crore for ease of calculation. Now, according to the Economic Survey, page 218, the all India work force, that is, employment in this country in the period between 1984 and 1994 increased by 7.6 crores at an annual average rate of 76 lakh jobs per year. In other words, a full decade ago, we were already creating additional jobs, additional employment at the rate of 76 lakhs per annum. But curiously for the period between 1994 and 2000, it says that the total work force, that is, employment, went up by two crores at an annual average rate of 20 lakhs. Now, when the size of work force was increasing at the rate of 20 lakhs a year between 1994 and 2000, how is it that suddenly in 2001-02 it goes up to 79 lakhs, in the year following that it goes up by 73 lakhs and then in 2002-03, which was a disastrous year for agriculture where most of our people are employed, it is claimed that it has gone up by another 84 lakhs? At 84 lakhs, the net job creation last year, according to the Prime Minister, is higher than the performance achieved in any year in the past. It is extraordinary that we should have the poorest economic performance in 15 years and the highest job creation going with that. How is this feasible? I request the hon. Minister of Labour for whom I have the utmost respect because among other things he is the Member of Parliament for the area in which I live and the regularisation of Sainik Farms depend entirely on him. I ask him – I am not making any charges against the Prime Minister – to reconcile the statement made by the Prime Minister with the facts that have come before us through this document.