Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that there was an atmosphere of "fear" across the country and the minorities were feeling "threatened" under the Narendra Modi government.

Speaking at an event of his party here, Gandhi accused the NDA government of "pitting one community against the other" and gave it a score of "zero" as regards job creation.

"Fear is being generated across the country. Dalits are being beaten up, one community is being made to fight with another. Minorities are feeling threatened. My friends from the press are feeling uncomfortable, they are scared to write what they want to," he said, adding, "This is the spirit of the RSS-BJP and not of the Congress." 

Asserting that the Centre must follow the "Congress' spirit" in running the country, Gandhi referred to the party's regime in Karnataka and lauded Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for his "focus on the poor and ability to listen to the people".

He was speaking at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee's extended general body meeting, in the presence of Siddaramaiah and the party's state unit chief, G Parameshwara, among others.

Pointing out that one of the biggest promises the prime minister had made to the youth was about employment, Gandhi gave the Modi government a score of "zero" in this regard.

"Narendra Modi had said two crore jobs would be created every year. The pass-mark in any exam is 40, but Modiji will get a zero out of 100 in creating jobs," he added.

"….Last year, the government could not even provide employment to one lakh people. This is the truth of Narendra Modi, BJP and RSS. They only want to distract the attention from the issues of farmers and employment," alleged Gandhi.

Accusing the government of "running the country by pitting the communities against each other, instead of providing jobs to the youth", the Congress vice-president said creating jobs was essential for the future of the country.

"Modi has been unable to address this issue. That is the truth.

"They (Centre) say Make in India, Swachh Bharat…Startup India, stand up India, sit down India, move left India, go right India. They deliver big speeches, but it is only shallowness," he said.

On BJP president Amit Shah calling Mahatma Gandhi a "chatur Baniya" (a clever Baniya — the trading caste), in a reference to the mercantile caste he belonged to, Gandhi said it did not even warrant a response.

"We need not answer these people on Gandhiji. The entire nation knows who Gandhiji was. Even the British know who stood against them and who bowed down in front of them," he added in a veiled dig at the BJP-RSS.