Rahul Gandhi attacks PM Narendra Modi in Bahrain, to visit Canada, Singapore next

Manama: After Bahrain, Congress president Rahul Gandhi's next foreign trip would be to countries like Canada and Singapore followed by another one to the Middle East.

Gandhi visited Bahrain as a part of his outreach to the Indian diaspora. 

His outreach is seen as a move to popularise the Congress among the Indian diaspora.

He said this during an interactive session with the Indian diaspora in Bahrain.

"In fact, I was speaking to Sam (Sam Pitroda) in the car today, and that's exactly what we said that one of the places we really need to go is Canada,'' Rahul Gandhi said.  

"Sam and Milind (Deora) are organising a set of trips to different parts of the world. We are going to do one to Canada, we are going to do one to Singapore and we are going to do another one to the Middle East. So, we are looking forward to that. And we will be in Canada, we will come and have a chat with you in Canada," Gandhi said in a reply on being asked about his plans to visit Canada.

Rahul also took a dig at PM Narendra Modi over the BJP government's GST and demonetisation moves and its impact on the Indian economy.  

Highlighting how job creation in India is at an eight-year-low, Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday said the two threats facing India under the Narendra Modi government are the inability to create jobs and the rise in the forces of hatred and division.

Addressing the Indian diaspora in Bahrain here, he said, "Tragically the conversation in our country today is not about jobs, healthcare or education. The only thing India talks about is what you are allowed to eat, who is allowed to protest and what we can say or rather what we cannot say.'' 

"India today is free, but once again it is under threat. There are two clear threats facing our country today. The first is our government's inability to provide jobs for our people. Our main competitor China produces 50,000 jobs every 24 hours. India currently produces 400 jobs in the same amount of time," Rahul said.

"It is an important figure. What China does in two days, it takes India one year to do. These are not my figures, these are figures of the government of India given in the Parliament. Job creation in India is at an eight-year-low," Gandhi said.

"New investments have been lowest in 13 years. Bank credit growth has sunk to a 63-year low. To make matters worse, many in the Indian diaspora have lost hard-earned money because of arbitrary decisions like demonetisation. It landed a crippling blow to India's overall economic growth. The fact is that India can simply not afford this," he added.

Underlining India was the second-most populous country with 30,000 new youngsters coming daily into India's job market, he said that not providing education and jobs to these youngsters was "a recipe for disaster". 

Gandhi on Monday met Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Foreign Minister Prince Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa and discussed ways to develop sports and cricket ties between the two countries.

(With IANS inputs)