After a decade of being out of the Government, the fundamental approach of the Congress party towards the electorate has not changed. Several leaders may have deserted the party because of repeated losses. The speeches may have changed and the rhetoric become sharper but the continuity of confusion is still reflected in its manifesto.
Reviewing Manifestoes
Party manifestoes are the only written promises made to voters. These written promises are the only thing that a political party can be held responsible for delivering. Speeches are noise, nobody can be held responsible for delivering something just said in a speech. In the din of political speeches and rhetoric, the importance of the manifesto as a document of promises made is sometimes lost. Every voter must review and reflect on the manifesto. This is where the intent of the party becomes clear from what it promises and how it promises.
BJP has called its manifesto ‘Modi Ki Guarantee- Sanklap Patra,’ while the Indian National Congress manifesto is called Nyay Patra. The Congress party believes that India has been living anyay kaal for the last ten years and it wants to correct it by giving voters ‘rights’.
Congress’ manifesto has been carelessly drafted and poorly framed on its economic impact. It is as if the drafters never expect the policies to be implemented or they think that the manifesto does not matter as nobody will hold them accountable for these promises. There is something fundamentally wrong with such a mindset. If the promises are not feasible economically they are unlikely to be delivered.
Guarantee of Reskilling Manual Scavengers Genuine
Take Congress’s promise of implementing the Prohibition of Manual Scavenging Act, which was passed in 2013. Now, it is promised, “That every manual scavenger will be rehabilitated, re-skilled, provided a job and assured a life of dignity and safety.” After Swatchta Abhiyan by the Modi Government, 530 districts have been free from manual scavenging in 2023. Moreover, the total population of manual scavengers has declined rapidly, due to toilets being constructed even in rural areas. Who is Congress reskilling, rehabilitating or providing a job when most of these manual scavengers have already moved on to other trades or jobs due to the success of Swatchta Abhiyan across the country? A scheme that even the World Bank has acknowledged as among the most effective in the world. Why make promises for something that do not exist, only for perception or the manifesto makers did not do even basic homework?
List of Unachievable Promises
Congress promises a caste census and that it will do a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservation for SC, ST and OBC, while blaming Bharatiya Janata Party that it will amend and destroy the Constitution if it comes back to power. If Congress changes then it is an amendment but if the BJP changes then it is destruction.
Congress promises a universal healthcare of up to Rs 25 lakh, compared to Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat Yojana. A five-times increase in this limit means that the allocation for such a scheme will also increase at least five times. Currently, BJP Government allocates Rs 7,200 crore under its scheme; this will go up to Rs 36,000 crore if Congress comes to power. From where this five times increase in Budget will come from, the manifesto does not say. But Congress had announced this scheme in Rajasthan where it lost the elections. So it does not seem like a feasible scheme for getting votes per se. Ayushman Bharat has consumed close to Rs 80,000 crore since 2018, now imagine this ballooning to Rs 4,00,000 crores. Certainly, this money will come from higher taxes on the common man.
Increasing Budget to Alarming Proportions
Congress also promises that it will fill three million so-called ‘vacant’ Government positions. Where it got the number of three million and where it will get the funds to pay three million extra to Government employees it does not say. But even conservatively, this excessive increase in Government servants will increase the annual Government salary Budget by at least Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The manifesto neither says how it will raise money to increase taxation on common people. Nor does it say that increasing bureaucrats also increases red tape, hassles and harassment of businesses.
Trapping Women Voters
Congress also promises that its Mahalakshmi scheme will pay Rs 1 lakh per year to women in every poor household. This is to basically attract women voters who have become a decisive vote bank. In the 2019 manifesto also Congress had promised a basic income scheme called Nyuntam Aay, which did not attract any attention from voters. Maybe, because these promises are so hard to keep, the cost of the Mahalakshmi scheme if it was given to say 5 crore of the poorest families would be Rs 5,00,000 crores. This would make it the world’s largest basic income scheme and certainly not something that the Indian Budget can handle. Even the common man understands that when promises are too good, they are also too good to be true. Such outrageous promises are what make voters doubt the parties intention. The obvious question voters will ask is where will they get this money. And there is no answer to that question. There are more promises for the youth, especially the unemployed youth. Congress under its Yuva Nyay programme promises apprenticeship to all diploma and graduates under the age of 25 years. Almost 50 per cent of the Indian population is below 25 years old, let us assume that this apprenticeship will be provided to only those in the age group of 18-25 years. The population of Indians in the age group of 18-25 years is close to 15 crores. Congress says that it will pass a Right to Apprenticeship Act to ensure that these 15 crore youths will get apprenticeships.
Now, this approach of giving rights to people is how Congress looks at governance. This is how the grand old party believes that schemes will be delivered on the ground. If the Government passes an Act that gives the people the right to an apprenticeship, voila the next day everyone eligible will have an apprenticeship. Giving a right is seen as a way of delivering something. The right is still a promise and not a system for delivery.
Converting Rights into Actions
If this logic is to be followed, the Modi Government would have given a right to cleanliness to every citizen, instead of launching the world’s largest cleanliness project in a mission mode. Rights are sentences on a piece of paper, till they are converted into an action and delivered to people on the ground. This conversion of rights into delivery needs a system. Passing legislation never guarantees anything, it just gives the Government the sanction to deliver on what is said in the law. The real thing is delivering it on the ground and that needs concerted action from several layers of the Government. These actions need both incentives and penalties to ensure that they happen. They do not happen because it is legislated; it takes time, planning, and systemic execution. Voters intuitively know who can deliver and who is just making empty promises. Right to Education was passed by the UPA Government; it did not make any difference on the ground. The real difference in the education sector only started after the NDA Government reformed the whole system through the National Education Policy. Systems do not change because a law is passed. Criminals do not stop because there is a law against murder and crime. You need a deterrent or a police system to prevent crime. There are other topics that the Congress manifesto covers like industry, North East and defence. Though there are no new ideas or promises there, most of it is a repetition of its previous manifestoes.
A very large section of the manifesto talks about the Economic Policy; the party will follow to ensure that there is growth in jobs. The three goals of its economic policy were, and will be, work, wealth and welfare. The Economic Policy talks about urban job guarantee programmes much like MGNREGA for rural areas.
Despite the rhetoric of its leaders against large industrialists, the manifesto says that it will support businesses of all sizes. Under a Congress Government, the welfare of the poor will be the first charge on all Government resources. It will be the Congress’ endeavour to ensure that the 22 crore people below the poverty line are lifted above the line in the next 10 years.
Congress has not accepted that the voters’ expectations and understanding of promises and delivery have changed. Even after two failures it still feels it can take shortcuts to success.
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