Rahul Gandhi hits out at Centre over privatisation, says unemployment today highest in 4 decades
Haveri (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday hit out at the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing it of promoting privatisation of state-owned companies and reducing the number of government jobs in the country.
Addressing a public meeting here in Haveri district, he attacked the government on the issues of corruption, price rise and unemployment.
Government companies were being privatised one by one, and government jobs were being reduced, alleged Gandhi, who was on a visit to the state to campaign for the party ahead of the May 10 Assembly polls.
"When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, he said two crore youth would be given jobs every year. (But) unemployment is highest today in 40 years," he said.
In the healthcare and education sectors, the government was supposed to build institutions but instead they were all being privatised, Gandhi said.
"We don't want such a Hindustan, We don't want an unemployed India, we don't want a poor India, we want justice," he said.
He appealed to the people to give the Congress at least 150 seats (out of a total of 224) in the elections. "Don't give them (BJP) more than 40 seats," Gandhi said,
Gandhi reiterated the "40 per cent sarkar" charge against the Basavaraj Bommai government, adding that former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who recently quit the BJP and joined the Congress, was not given a chance by the ruling party to contest in the elections as he did not indulge in corruption.
Earlier in his interaction with sugarcane farmers at Ramdurg in Belagavi district, he said India's progress depended on the progress of its farmers, labourers and small businesses.
Gandhi said his conversations with farmers in Karnataka and across India had given him insight into the "ordeals brought upon them by the corrupt BJP regime, which is only focused on helping 2-3 of its 'mitr'".
Farmers and small business owners must be protected and empowered, not assaulted with "flawed policies like the BJP's GST", he said. "The Congress party is committed to scripting such a growth story, which brings prosperity for all," he said.
"Karnataka is all set to bring in this change," added Gandhi.
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Melinda French Gates resigns as Gates Foundation co-chair, 3 years after her divorce from Bill Gates
New York, May 13: Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organisations over the past 20 years.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
She praised the foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation's board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.
Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundations in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”
French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.
The Gates Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment about whether those assets would come from the foundation itself. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees on Monday.
“After a difficult few years watching women's rights rolled back in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.
Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy, especially around gender equity.
“I know how beloved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.
The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.
The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.
