The election season of 2019 is upon us and election campaigns of all political parties are in full swing. Every political party and their leader seeks victory and victory is always sweet. Therefore, the poll campaign is a prime concern nowadays to attract voters favourably.
Meanwhile, I believe that the 2019 election is completely different from the previous election of 2014. In 2014, the general election was fought in the name of “vikas” (development) and there was a popular slogan being used by the opposition party (BJP) – ‘Achche din aane wale hai’ (Good days are coming). But, after the five years of governance, the BJP has forgotten the same slogan in this year’s poll campaign and today, no one is repeating this slogan. I wonder whether we saw ‘achche din’. Let the readers think about it, I won’t speak about it too much.
After ten years of governance, the Indian National Congress party lost in 2014 and the Bharatiya Janata Party got the absolute majority – which was a first for any non-congress party in India. The results clearly reflected people’s dissatisfaction and anger against the Congress party for the several corruption issues and misgovernance of the coalition government.
All these concerns were taken up in front of voters through a wave led by Narendra Modi, where the BJP got the advantage in the poll result back in 2014. In my opinion, the 2014 election was mainly based on three issues
- a) A fight against corruption
- b) Development, and
- Good governance.
Sadly, I don’t find these issues being discussed in the poll campaign for the 2019 election, neither by the ruling party nor by the opposition parties. This election is based on people’s emotions and our leaders are trying to say that voters need to vote in favour of an individual or against one. I find poll campaigns are less practical with limited focus on real issues and concerns related to the people.
This has led me to ask some questions – Is the Lok Sabha election completely free of any relevant issues and concerns or is it not important to address certain issues in the public domain? Is it not strange that the general election is likely based on non-issues?! Where is the Indian democracy heading? Is the carnival of democracy celebrated only by winning the elections? Why isn’t there a serious need to talk about the country’s major issues and challenges?
If you’re wondering what we can do as voters, then we need to look into the past and examine the phenomenon of Indian politics. After independence, there was a time when the Congress party won the elections for several decades. Once, Congress leader DK Barooah also proclaimed, “India is Indira. Indira is India.” But, this did not continue for long; in 1977 Congress’ dream run stopped and Moraraji Desai became the first non-Congress PM of India.
After the JP movement, several government formations were seen in India. The first ever non-Congress government of India which completed a 5-year term led by AB Vajpayee also sunk in 2004. Many experts expected the Vajpayee government to return once again.
In the last general election, the result stopped the Congress from a hat-trick victory, and I believe that voters gave them what they deserved. It is also important to mention that all the previous elections were based more or less on important issues. Indira Gandhi faced trouble for the emergency and allegations that the Congress party was involved in corruption. The Vajpayee government fell for not fulfilling promises made to the people earlier. Serious corruption charges like the 2G, CWG, Coal scam led to the fall of the Congress party in 2014.
Manifesto: BJP vs Congress
Now, we should take a quick look at the pre-poll promises that have been made by the ruling BJP and principle opposition party, Congress, in their manifestos. The BJP released its manifesto with a tagline,“Sanklapit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat”, while the Congress’ tagline is “Congress will deliver”. According to critiques, BJP’s manifesto is more or less a revised version of the party’s 2014 manifesto and, on the other hand, the Congress manifesto suggests that the grand old political party of India is still playing catch-up politics.
Here are a few key highlights of both the manifestos:
Employment
BJP: There isn’t any clear sub-section on the jobs’ issue in the party’s manifesto. However, the party promises to increase the guaranteed loans to MSMEs to ₹1 lakh crore by 2024 from ₹17000 crore in 2017-18.
Congress: The party promises the “Job Revolution”. They have promised to fill 4 lakh vacancies at the central level and 20 lakh vacancies at the state level by March 2020.
Healthcare
BJP: They have promised to create 1.5 lakh healthcare and wellness centres and increase the number of MBBS and specialist doctors by 2024.
Congress: They have promised to double the expenditure to 3% of the GDP by 2023-24 and also promised to enact the right to healthcare act and universal healthcare.
Farmers’ Issues
BJP: The ruling party promises to double farmers’ income by 2022 and also to give interest-free loans up to 1 lakh. Furthermore, they will extend the benefits of the PMKSNY scheme to the farmers.
Congress: The principal opposition party promises to create a separate farmer’s budget in the budget season, likewise the railway budget of earlier days, to put more focus on farmers’ issues. The party also promises to spend 72000 per year as NYAY, a minimum income scheme to 20% of the poorest families.
Education
BJP: The party promises to create more smart classes; 200 more Kendriya and Navodya Vidyalayas by 2024 and an increment in seats in all law, engineering, and management institutions by 50%. Increased autonomy in institutions; 50 Institutes of Eminence (IoE), more Indian institutes in top 500 world ranking by 2024 are some of the other promises related to education.
The launch of the ‘Prime Minister Innovative Learning Programme’ which will bring together children from all over the country also features in their manifesto.
Congress: The party promises to increase the GDP percentage to the ideal 6% from the current 3% on education; increase in the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education from the current level of 25.8 to the level of at least 40 in a period of 5 years. They have promised to restore the autonomy in campuses, and also restore the 200-point roster system in colleges. Better infrastructure, technology-enabled teaching, compulsory vocational training from classes I-XII, more universities, more Kendriya and Navodya Vidyalayas, are among other promises mentioned in the manifesto.
National Security
On the issue of national security, both the parties have shared almost the same views. The BJP stated that the party is fully committed to nationalism and has zero tolerance towards terrorism. While the Congress party ensures that defence spending will be increased to meet the requirements of the armed forces; suitable policies to address data security will be implemented to ensure cyber, financial and communication security.
The issue of Article 370 and Article 35(A)
BJP: The party in their manifesto promises to abolish article 370 and remove the article 35(A) and allow non-residents to buy land in Jammu & Kashmir.
Congress: The party promises to uphold article 370 which confers special status to Jammu & Kashmir. The party also promises to review the AFSPA and forces deployment.
Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016
On the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Bill of 2016, both the parties have different views. The BJP strongly mentioned that they will pass the bill into an act in the next five years, on the other hand, the Congress has said that they are against the bill and will put it to cancellation when they come to power.
Entrepreneurship and Startups
BJP: The party promises collateral free credit up to ₹50 lakh for entrepreneurs, to ease regulatory requirement and simplify tax filing.
Congress: There is no clear mention of benefits for entrepreneurs and startups in their manifesto. They just say that they will set up an entrepreneurship support agency to bring focus to this field.
Women empowerment
Both parties have almost similar views regarding women empowerment. They promise to ensure 33% reservation for women in parliament and women’s safety and security is a prime concern. The Congress party aims to reduce sexual harassment in the workplace and increase the number of women employees in security forces and in the Judiciary. On the other hand, the BJP promises to bring accessible and affordable education to women and abolish the Triple Talaq and Nikah Halala.
Infrastructure:
BJP: The BJP has promised capital investment of ₹100 lakh crore in the infrastructure sector by 2024. Some of the key promises on infrastructure by the BJP are:
50 cities are to be covered with a strong metro network in the next five years.
‘Jal Jivan Mission’ with a special program ‘Nal se Jal’ to ensure piped water for every household by 2024.
Construction of 60,000 km of national highways in the next five years.
Doubling the length of national highways by 2022.
Electrification of all railway tracks by 2022.
Congress: The party promises the review, re-formulation and implementation of the infrastructure policy and exploration and extraction of natural resources. The policy will address issues of allocation, capital investment, enhanced production, transparency, efficiency, risk-reward concerns, environmental sustainability, inter-generational equity, accountability, competition and appropriate sectoral regulation. Other assurances include a new model of governance for towns and cities through a directly elected mayor with a fixed term of five years, an elected council and a separate administrative structure for each urban body. Slums will be transformed by replacing huts and kuchha dwellings with proper houses, roads and other public facilities.
Critical Review Of Both The Manifestos
The BJP Manifesto
The BJP’s manifesto reads like a dream as it has made a lot of promises, but it has failed to explain the implementation strategy for these promises. It also does not explain how the budget will cover these pre-poll promises. Most of the promises in the manifesto are vague and seem like a formality. The party’s manifesto retains their old promises like the ‘Ram Mandir’ and Uniform Civil Code issues. Surprisingly, the party which came into power in 2014 by promising to fight against corruption have not mentioned any new promises on how to tackle the issue of corruption in the near future.
If they have thought that corruption is no longer an issue in India; then they have made a mistake! I don’t know what they are thinking right now but this makes the manifesto so unrealistic. Lastly, the tone and phrases that are used in the party’s manifesto are very well-planned but it does not assure us about how the party would handle issues and challenges in the near future.
The Congress Manifesto
The Congress manifesto has also covered a lot of things under their pre-poll promises. The party’s manifesto is likely to bring back their socialism norms mixed with current liberal politics. They have strong views on farmers, poor people and rural development, but they might forget to put any clear promises to the youth for self-employment or increasing employment in private sectors.
Surprisingly, the party makes clear remarks on the issue of corruption and reviewing the provision of electoral bonds. They have been criticized by the BJP for their promise to scrap the sedition law once they come back to power. Meanwhile, in the party’s manifesto, there is no single strict formula of evaluation and it talks about achieving numerous high-end goals, but clearly lacks the schemes and measures to achieve these goals.
However, the figures provided are quite ambitious when compared with the proposed time frame. Calling the Congress’ manifesto as “Balloons of lies”, I am leaving with this question ‘Is the Congress party’s manifesto meant to be based on current promises that will be broken in future?’
Concluding Remarks
Above, I have mentioned the key issue both the parties have highlighted in front of the voters. Now, the big question is whether introducing a manifesto just before the elections will impact the polls in any way. Do voters take the manifesto seriously and read it before casting votes? The answer is very simple! Indian election manifestos tend to go unread. The manifestos make it easy to fuel TV discussions but they are not distributed in every voter’s hands during the poll campaigns. Therefore, the speeches that are made by leaders in the poll campaigns or rallies actually impact voters more.
In this era of advancement of technology, where we use social media to debate questions of importance in the country, I believe that we need to be practical rather than emotional when it comes to evaluating political leader or parties.
Before summing up this post, I would just like to add that as citizens casting votes in the elections, we must be informed about the policies that are made for the people and hold those in power accountable by asking questions to the people’s representatives. Engagement in the political process or political participation is the right and responsibility of every citizen, and it is not just limited to casting a vote.