Elections 2019: Congress Raises Stakes With Detailed Manifesto, Will BJP Follow?
The 55-page Indian National Congress manifesto released by party President Rahul Gandhi took one year to put together and covers a vast range of issues from jobs, farmers, national security to even LGBTQ rights. The exercise has given a renewed importance to manifestos, which have been reduced to a formality over the last few state and parliamentary elections. In some parts, the Congress lapses into ‘default mode’ of big government that takes upon itself to provide everything from jobs to healthcare and education. Some ideas like an elected mayor for cities, and exempting startups from laws other than from minimum wage and income tax, are new. Here’s what to make of the top pitches in the Congress manifesto.
Jobs
- Government will fill vacancies, 4 lakh in the central government, 20 lakh in states, by March 2020.
- Days of employment under MNREGA to be increased to 150.
- Employment through government funded programs like AASHA scheme and Sewa Mitra.
- Encouragement to private sector through exemptions for startups and apprenticeship programme for businesses with 100 employees.
Farmers
- Farm loan waivers to be extended to all states.
- Separate ‘Kisan Budget’ focusing on farmers.
- Farmer debt defaults to be a civil liability and not criminal.
‘NYAY’
- Rs 72,000 per year to be given to 5 crore families.
- Design phase of three months and pilot phase of nine months before roll out.
- Expert panel will monitor roll out and implementation.
- NYAY scheme to cost less than 1 percent of GDP in year-one and less than 2 percent of GDP in year-two
Abolishing Laws And Programmes
The promise of reversing laws and programmes brought in by previous dispensations feature prominently. Some of the schemes and plans that will face the axe if a Congress government comes to power include:
- APMC Act,
- E-way bill,
- Angel tax,
- Electoral bonds,
- Citizenship Amendment Bill,
- NITI Aayog,
- Sedition law.
Health And Education
- To allocate 6 percent of GDP to education by 2023–24.
- To extend Right to Education till class XII.
- To allocate 3 percent of GDP to healthcare by FY24.
Jammu & Kashmir
- Two pronged approach, firmness on the border and winning hearts and minds.
- Review deployment of armed forces.
- Dialogue with all stakeholders.
- Review AFSPA to balance needs of security forces and human rights.
- Hold Assembly election immediately.
By investing this much time and effort in its manifesto, Congress has raised the stakes for the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP released its previous Lok Sabha election manifesto on April 7, 2014, the same day as the first votes were being cast, which seemingly made little difference to its electoral success. Can the BJP afford to bank just on ‘Modi magic’, again?
Tamanna Inamdar is Senior Editor at BloombergQuint.