Eight days before the first phase of the Lok Sabha election scheduled for April 11, the Congress Party releases its 55-page manifesto. A manifesto is merely that – a set of promises, many of which remain unfulfilled. Captioned, “Congress Will Deliver,” this time the Party claims that the manifesto reflects the aspirations of the people. The major themes on which the manifesto rests are Kaam (employment and growth ), Daam (an economy that works for all), Shaan (pride in hard work and soft power), Sushashan (good governance through independent and accountable institutions) Swabhimaan (self esteem for the deprived), Samman (life of dignity for all) The Congress manifesto has been cleverly crafted to include those aspects of governance which the Modi government is perceived to have failed on.
The appeal of the Congress Party, “Let us rebuild India. Together, let us get India moving again,” assumes that the five year rule of the NDA Government has destroyed the fabric that held the nation together and which should therefore be rebuilt. It presupposes that India had come unstuck these last five years and must therefore rev up its engine post May 23. This is an ambitious manifesto, well crafted by the backroom boys in the Congress war room. In its breadth and comprehensiveness it seems to have covered every aspect of the citizen’s life from economic security to internal security and food security. Climate resilience and disaster management have found mention. Hopefully this will look into the disastrous extractive coal mining methods of states like Meghalaya where the environment has suffered irreversibly.
The Congress promises to bring Electoral Reforms, Police Reforms, Media and Freedom of The Media and to address the concerns of the LGBTQIA + community. These proposed reforms would resonate with a large section of the citizenry. Police reforms have been pushed to the backburner by successive governments thereby turning the different branches of policing, including the CBI into political tools. Since 2014 the media has been operating in a climate of oppression by those in power. Journalists have been booked for sedition for raising their voices against the ruling party and government.
The North Eastern states have been listed as the deprived category needing special attention along with several other categories such as ST,SC, and denotified tribes. Women’s empowerment and gender justice also find mention although these are clichéd promises made by all political parties to appear politically correct. However, the manner in which the Congress has distributed tickets this time belies its claims to gender justice since many women were left out of the fray.