Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said youngsters would not be using their mobile phones for 12 hours a day had there been no unemployment in the country.
Rahul Gandhi said this while addressing a gathering in Sambhal as part of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
The Congress leader's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra reached Sambhal via Moradabad and Amroha, where Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders welcomed Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Speaking at the Chandausi intersection, Rahul Gandhi asked a man, "How many hours do you use your mobile?" to which he replied, "Twelve hours."
Responding to this, Rahul Gandhi said, "There is no employment in India, that is why you use your mobile phone for 12 hours. Did you know that the sons of big businessmen don't watch Reels, they count money 24 hours (a day)?"
"If you get employment, you will watch Reels for half an hour and work for 12 hours," the Congress leader said.
Rahul Gandhi -- who has claimed several times during the yatra that people from backward classes, Dalits and SC/ST communities don't hold senior positions -- sharpened his attack on their lack of representation.
He said, "If we take out the list of employees of any company, take out the list of owners. Not one backward class, Dalit owner will be found. Take out the list of owners of media houses, private colleges or judges of high courts. The same three to four per cent people (from upper castes) keep working in these positions."
Rahul Gandhi also claimed that work is being done to eliminate small farmers and traders.
"You are being starved to death, you are being destroyed. Exam paper gets leaked because these people do not want to provide employment to the youth of India. They cannot provide employment to them," the Congress leader claimed.
Gandhi said he undertook the 4,000-kilometre Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir last year because the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are spreading hatred in all corners of the country.
Cornering the media, the Congress leader said, "Whenever we present our views in the media, the media does not show it. Be it the hard work of workers, unemployment, inflation -- these things are not going to be visible in the media."
"A shop of love has to open in the market of hatred," Rahul Gandhi said and added, "My work is to fight and eradicate hatred from the country."
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also lashed out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that bulldozers are used to demolish homes of "innocent people" while the "guilty" escape unscathed.
Priyanka Gandhi joined the yatra, which resumed its journey from Moradabad after a two-day halt for the march's final leg in Uttar Pradesh.
She will accompany her brother as the yatra passes through Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Agra, concluding at Fatehpur Sikri on Sunday, the Congress said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is set to join the yatra in Agra on Sunday, a development that comes after the parties reached a seat-sharing arrangement in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls.
Priyanka Gandhi was to participate in the yatra when it entered Uttar Pradesh in Chandauli but could not because of ill health and subsequent hospitalisation.
Addressing the public in Moradabad, she said, "When I came here in 2022, we had made a plan in the manifesto on how to stop repeated question paper leaks. It consisted of a job calendar, which would have the examination date and the date of appointment. We also spoke about making a commission to address all the injustices that had taken place."
The Congress general secretary also said that unemployment and inflation are rising in the country.
"The farmers were protesting yesterday. The farmers are protesting today also but the government is not listening to them. In Uttar Pradesh, bulldozers did not run on the homes of those who crushed farmers under their jeeps, tortured women and leaked question papers. In this government, the bulldozer is not moved on guilty but only on the homes of innocent people," she said.
Speaking about the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, she said "nyay (justice)" was added to the name because injustice is being done to women, children and farmers of the country.
She added that "until you bring about a change, your circumstances will not change".
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party's Moradabad MP ST Hasan also participated in the yatra.
He said, "At present, the country is going through a terrible situation. Till date, there has never been such a threat to communal harmony. Today, all Indians want that our love and the Ganga-Jamuni culture to remain intact."
The yatra will enter Rajasthan and halt in Dholpur on Sunday.
The Congress has said the yatra will go on a break from February 26 to March 1 to allow Rahul Gandhi fulfil his long-standing commitment to deliver two lectures at his alma mater Cambridge University in the UK on February 27 and 28.
He will also attend meetings in New Delhi during this period, it has said.
The yatra will resume from Dholpur on March 2. It will then move into Madhya Pradesh and cover Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Guna, Shajapur and Ujjain among other districts.
On March 5, Rahul Gandhi will pay obeisance at the Shri Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. He had offered prayers at the temple on November 29, 2022, during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
