Even as the BJP is making national security the prime focus of its general elections 2019 campaign, promising to deal with insurgency and Pakistan-exported terror with a heavy hand, the Congress manifesto has taken an approach that is unusually soft and wishy washy. In these times of elections to the Lok Sabha Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has described the Congress election promises as being “unimplementable and dangerous” and added that its manifesto contains ideas ‘for Balkanisation of India’.
Speaking for his party, Jaitley charged that the Congress leadership was in the grip of jihadists and Maoists. In a campaign that is marked by bad blood and innuendos on both sides, there is indeed a no-holds-barred mood that characterises general elections 2019, a mere eight days before the first round of polling.
The Congress’ most controversial panacea for peace in Kashmir is to ‘review’ the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and Disturbed Areas Act which empower and provide immunity to security forces in areas hit by insurgency and militancy. This, the BJP sees as “diluting the idea of national security.”
A review of AFSPA was mooted and discussed some years ago too but in the light of the heightened Pakistani covert support to militancy it was felt that the country could ill afford ‘dilution’ of the Act. Another aspect of the Congress manifesto is its promise to repeal the colonial-era sedition law whereby sedition would no longer be deemed to be a crime. While the law needs to be re-defined in tune with the times, throwing out the law completely would be a disastrous move and a recipe for a step-up in anti-national activities.
The Congress party’s promise in the manifesto to provide a statutory basis to the National Security Council and the office of the National Security Adviser may seem reasonable but matters of security cannot be dealt with in a straight-jacket. Nor can decisions on security be under intense public scrutiny.
The entire thrust of countering the BJP with a soft approach on internal and external security may well prove counter-productive because of the growing feeling among people that the country would be more secure under a strong government which the BJP is more likely to provide.
The Congress manifesto has also a strong welfare content. While the promise of greater allocation for education and health will go down well, there is no denying that manifestos in general are taken with a pinch of salt, being a surfeit of promises with little regard to the resources available. The minimum income guarantee (Nyay) of Rs 72,000 per annum for crores of families, with the money promised to go into the poor people’s bank accounts would hardly be believed unless there are credible steps towards it.
With the chances of a Congress government coming to power at the Centre relatively remote, the dangle of carrots would be seen through as impractical and irresponsibly utopian. There is no attempt to define how a Congress government if it comes to power would mobilise resources to meet the huge costs of its sops to sections of the population and to finance its welfare programmes. This inevitably detracts from the credibility of its promises.
One of the major promises of the Congress has been to provide considerably more jobs, an area in which the BJP has noticeably failed. In the absence of a viable blueprint for action, it is difficult to believe that a new government would reverse the shrinking jobs scenario. The same goes for farmer distress.
While some action on this front may be imperative, it remains to be seen how the Congress-led coalition if it comes to power would bring identifiable and clear succour to the farmers. It is indeed time that the Congress party moves beyond hollow promises to come up with practical and implementable policy frameworks to convince the people that it has the wherewithal and intent to bring about changes for the better in the lives of people at large.
The party also needs to convince the masses that there would be no leakage of revenue through corruption as there was during a decade of UPA rule before the BJP was swept to power. The credibility of the Congress party is far from high on many fronts. It will therefore have to establish that for people to believe in it.