New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday released a 54-page manifesto with five big ideas. These promises are what the party can achieve, unlike “a large number of lies dished out by Prime Minister every day,’’ the party claimed.
Gandhi predictably put NYAY at the top of the heap: it guarantees Rs 72,000 a year to the poorest families. The cost to the exchequer will be Rs 3.60 lakh crore, spread over five years, but it will help “revive the economy, which is reeling under reckless demonetisation and faulty implementation of the GST.
A 20-member manifesto committee headed by P Chidambaram described the minimum income scheme as “do-able,” as against the lie to deposit Rs 15 lakh in each account. The goal is to eliminate poverty by 2030, the manifesto said. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has vetted the manifesto.
“As far as possible, the money will be transferred to the account of a woman in the family,” the manifesto said, noting that it will be rolled out in phases, setting aside three months for design, followed by a pilot and testing phase of six to nine months, before the actual rollout. The estimated cost to the tax payer will be less than 1% of the GDP in the first year and less than 2% of the GDP in the second year.
The manifesto underlined that as the nominal GDP grows and families move out of poverty, the cost will decline as a portion of the GDP. “Our pledge is jobs, jobs and jobs,” was the Congress chant at the manifesto release, even as it highlighted the BJP lie of creating 2 crore jobs every year.
The Congress proposes to fill up 22 lakh government vacancies by March 2020, which include 4 lakh Central government jobs, create 10 lakh ‘seva mitra’ positions in gram panchayats and local bodies, create lakhs of jobs by launching “water bodies restoration mission” and a “wasteland regeneration mission.” It has also promised jobless that they will be able to set up enterprises without paying bribes, as no permissions will be required.
The third big promise is to increase the guaranteed days of employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act from 100 days to 150 days a year in rural areas; also, a Right to Homestead Act will be enacted to provide home to every family without one; the government will also create a non-lapsable rural infrastructure fund to finance infrastructure projects of panchayats.
On the farm front, the manifesto promises to waive off the outstanding loans , not stopping at “karz maafi” (loan waiver) but setting out farmers on the path of “karz mukti” or freedom from indebtedness through a combination of remunerative prices, lower input costs and assured access to institutional credit.
Rahul has also envisaged a separate Kisan budget to let farmers know how much they will get; what he hailed as “historic” is that no farmer will go to jail for non-payment of bank dues as it will be made a civil offence and not criminal.
There will be no more exploitation under the BJP’s failed “Fasal Bima Yojana” (crop insurance scheme) that has only enriched the insurance companies at the cost of the farmers as they will be directed to charge premium on crop insurance on the principle of “no profit, no loss.” Recognition of ownership and tenancy rights of women farmers, welfare of the farm labour are among 22 plans on agriculture.
The other two big promises in the manifesto are the resolve to spend 6% of the GDP on education to ensure universities, IITs and IIMs are accessible to all and provide high quality medical treatment to the poorest. In reply to a question, Rahul drew attention to the manifesto’s title “Congress will deliver” in English and “hum nibhayenge” in Hindi.