Jaitley: India’s economic growth not a jobless affair

Jaitley, who is here for medical treatment, justified the absence of any major mention of job creation in the Interim Budget presented on February 1, saying such budgets are different from the normal budget speeches as they are more like “a report card and a road map.”

“Why is it that India, in the last five years, hasn’t seen a major social or political agitation? If there is no job creation, there will be discontent. Where is that visible?” he said. The rout of incumbent governments is a foregone conclusion when such discontent is there but during current times the opposition parties are teaming up because they know they do not stand a chance otherwise, he said.

“Normally, outgoing governments in such environments, their rout is predicted. But today political rivals want to come together because they know for anyone of them it is not possible to take on Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and his party,” he said.

Jaitley said it is not as if “suddenly in five years the productivity levels in India have gone up that all organisations are now running with half their staff. The empirical evidence is to the contrary.”