Jobs for educated urban youth, free education for girls till the postgraduation level, more economic growth, talks with Pakistan over terror, and a complete loan waiver for farmers — the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) poll manifesto, released on Monday, touched upon every topic that has dominated the election discourse this season.

With reports that unemployment rates touched a four-decade high, the Sharad Pawar-led party has promised 100 days of employment to educated youth in urban areas.

The manifesto promised free education to girl students, but did not elaborate on what and who this would cover. It also promised a white paper to show how the Centre’s demonetisation move in November 2016 “drastically slowed down India’s economic growth and impacted GDP”.

Other promises in the 24-page document included a single, or a maximum of two, Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates for better compliance; and scrapping the Triple Talaq bill in its current form as it “did not consult members of the community”.

At present, an ordinance criminalises the practice.

The NCP is contesting the polls with the Congress and other like-minded parties in Maharashtra.

The NCP will contest 20 of the state’s 48 seats, the Congress, 24, and the other allies will contest four seats in the state.

On the lack of jobs, senior NCP leader and head of the party manifesto committee, Dilip Walse Patil, said, “The National Statistical Sample Organisation (NSSO), in its draft report estimated unemployment in India had hit a 40-year-high of 6.1% in 2017-18. Almost 1.80 crore people lost their jobs in the country last year. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report, the loss of jobs and the number of unemployed people in the country have been steadily rising.”

Blaming the Narendra Modi-led NDA government for the agrarian crisis across India, the manifesto said: “We will provide a complete loan waiver to all farmers. The minimum support price (MSP) will be augmented through a system of incentives and commission payments. Every attempt will be made to assure remunerative returns to farmers by adopting a holistic approach. We will provide relief in GST applicable on farming equipment.”

The NCP also promised more transparency in all defence procurement deals. “Special attention will be paid to curb violence against minorities and punish culprits. Cases of violence will be investigated in a time-bound manner and tried in special courts,” said Nawab Malik, the party spokesperson. On the issue of the Triple Talaq bill, Malik said, “the bill, in its current form did not take the community into confidence, and will be scrapped if we come to power.”

Holding current government accountable for a rise in terrorist attacks in Kashmir, the manifesto said the involvement of a large number of local youth in terrorism is a matter of great concern. The recent Pulwama attack brought to light how terrorists are luring local youth to disrupt law and order in Jammu and Kashmir, the manifesto said. “Our endeavour will be to bring the youth into the mainstream and prevent them from falling prey to radicalisation.”

First Published: Mar 26, 2019 00:26 IST