PM Modi should acknowledge Make in India a failure: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi criticizes government's failure to address job crisis, calls Make in India initiative a failure.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (February 5, 2025) said Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not mention Make in India in his speech in the House and asserted he must acknowledge that the initiative was a failure.

The Congress leader said no government in recent times — the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — had been able to meet at scale the national challenge of providing jobs.

"Prime minister, in your speech, you didn't even mention 'Make in India'! The prime minister should acknowledge that 'Make in India', although a good initiative, is a failure. Manufacturing has fallen from 15.3% of GDP in 2014 to 12.6% — the lowest in the last 60 years," Mr. Gandhi said in a post on X.

"India's youth desperately need jobs. No government in recent times, UPA or NDA, has been able to meet this national challenge at scale. We need a vision to address what's holding our manufacturing sector back, and prepare it to be competitive in the global economy of the future," the former Congress chief said.

Mr. Gandhi said this vision for production in India must also have a specific focus on emergent technologies such as electric motors, batteries, optics, and artificial intelligence.

"This is the only way to revive our manufacturing sector, develop cutting-edge manufacturing ability, and create the jobs we need. China is 10 years ahead of us and has a stronger industrial system — this is what gives them the confidence to challenge us," he said.

"The only way to compete effectively with them is to build our production systems and for that we need vision and strategy," he added.