Unemployment, farmers’ issues & more: Raghuram Rajan’s tete-a-tete with Rahul Gandhi

After participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Raghuram Rajan held a candid conversation with Rahul Gandhi, where they spoke about India’s economy, unemployment, farmers’ issues and more.

Rahul Gandhi had a candid conversation with former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. (Image: Videograb/YouTube)

By India Today Web Desk: Hours after walking with Rahul Gandhi in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday sat for a candid conversation with the former Congress chief and spoke at length about India’s economy, unemployment, farmers’ issues and more.

While asked about four or five businessmen getting richer and the rest of the country remaining on the backfoot, Rajan said that it is a big problem. “Its not just about four or five industrialists, even the income of upper-middle class rose in the country and they did not have to go to office during pandemic. Whereas, the poor had to go to factories and when the factories closed they did not get their wages,” he said.

“Extremely poor people get a lot of benefit from the government and the upper class was not affected by the pandemic, it was the lower-middle class who faced trouble to a larger extent. They have lost jobs, unemployment is increasing and so are their debts increasing. We should make policies to benefit the lower-middle class,” the former RBI governor said.

Further in the conversation, Rahul Gandhi pointed out that a lot of farmers complain that when their crops get ready, the government tweaks the policies and prices of the crops drop significantly. Responding to this, Raghuram Rajan said, “We say that we are there for farmers, but the export and import policies are made for the middle class living in urban India”.

“For example: If onion prices increase, we import, but prices come down for farmers. I think there should be stable import and export policies. We should not export much as it is against the farmers of the country,” Rajan said.

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Speaking on the issue of unemployment, Raghuram Rajan said joblessness is a big issue that the country is facing currently. “The main reason is people just want government jobs as it has social security. They prepare for years, appear for exams and very few get selected. This is why I think we need to grow the private sector and if we are able to bring technology into agriculture, then it also has the potential to generate jobs,” the former RBI governor said.

Rajan had joined Rahul Gandhi during the Congress-led Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan. Soon after the images of Rahul Gandhi with Rajan came on social media, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a swipe at the former RBI governor and said his commentary on India’s economy should be discarded with “disdain” as it is “coloured and opportunistic”.