According to Gandhi, PM Modi's policies are responsible for it. His policies have adversely affected small enterprises, he said. The Congress leader specifically pointed to demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as critical blows.

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"Today, there has been maximum unemployment in the country in the last 40 years. India has double the unemployment as compared to Pakistan. We have more unemployed youth than Bangladesh and Bhutan because Narendra Modi has finished small businesses by demonetization and implementing GST," ANI quoted Gandhi as saying in Gwalior.

India's youth unemployment rate stood at a staggering 23.22%. Pakistan's unemployment rate stood at 11.3% and Bangladesh's 12.9%, as per a World Bank report from 2022. 

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Modi government's economic strategies have been specifically damaging to the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, Gandhi said.

Rahul Gandhi on social injustice

Gandhi also spoke about social injustice. He noted that backward communities, tribal people and Dalits together constitute 73% of the population yet have negligible representation in major companies.

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"Not a single person among these 73% will be found in big companies. Then, Modi Ji says that I am working for the poor," he said.

Gandhi also questioned the reluctance towards conducting a caste census. He suggested that it would reveal the actual socio-economic status of Dalits, tribals, and backward classes.

"Why would anyone object to this? Narendra Modi ji says that there is no caste in the country. There are only two, poor and rich. If so then how did you become OBC?" he asked.