RRB-NTPC exam row: Mayawati says ‘BJP should change narrow mindset of making youth sell pakoras’

On Railway job aspirants' protest, Mayawati tweeted, "BJP should change its narrow mindset of making the youth sell ‘pakoras' (snacks)."

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New Delhi: Attacking the BJP over protests by Railway job aspirants in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Thursday (January 27) asked the saffron party to change its “narrow mindset of making the youth sell pakoras”. 

BSP chief took to Twitter to target the BJP over issues of unemployment and poverty. 

“There has been a huge uproar in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar over UPTNT and now over Railways' RRB-NTPC results, this is a proof of the failure of the governments. Beating up poor and unemployed youths for protesting, and playing with their future is totally unjustified,”  Mayawati tweeted in Hindi. 

She added, “Due to the wrong policies of the government, poverty and unemployment have reached the peak. Government jobs and reservation facility in them have become secondary. In such a situation, it is unjust to not have the examination even for small government jobs for years. BJP should change its narrow mindset of making the youth sell ‘pakoras' (snacks).” 

2. सरकार की गलत नीतियों के कारण गरीबी व बेरोजगारी चरम पर पहुँच गई है। सरकारी नौकरी व उनमें आरक्षण की सुविधा गौण हो गई है। ऐसे में वर्षों से छोटी सरकारी नौकरियों के लिए परीक्षा भी सही से नहीं होना अन्यायपूर्ण। भाजपा युवाओं से पकोड़ा बिकवाने का अपना संकीर्ण विज़न बदले। 2/2

— Mayawati (@Mayawati) January 27, 2022

Mayawati's remark is apparently a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments made during a 2018 interview to a TV news channel that selling pakoras is also a form of employment and can be seen as a form of ‘job creation’. 

Thousands of job aspirants, unemployed youths and students are currently protesting against Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC) following the change in the examination pattern of NTPC examinations. 

On Wednesday, after a passenger train was set on fire and another pelted with stones in Bihar during protests against the ‘irregularities’ in RRB-NTPC exam 2021, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urged job aspirants not to destroy public property. The Railway Ministry also decided to suspend NTPC and Level 1 exams in the wake of protests across the country.

Hundreds of protestors had also squatted on rail tracks at several places on Tuesday, hampering train movement in Bihar. Several trains had to be cancelled or run on alternative routes in view of the protests.

(With agency inputs)