BJP manifesto: Sankalp Patra gives NRC a miss, sticks to UCC stand

The manifesto states that the NDA would implement the 'one nation, one election' initiative

Launching the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s election manifesto on a day that the shadow of conflict threatened to spread further across West Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a “strong government with a full majority was necessary” in the prevailing uncertain international environment.

At the manifesto launch in New Delhi Sunday morning, the PM didn’t refer to any specific dispute but spoke of how his government, in the past 10 years, had time and again evacuated Indians stuck in conflict situations abroad.  The 69-page BJP manifesto, or ‘Sankalp Patra’, titled “Modi ki Guarantee 2024”, committed to building a Viksit Bharat by 2047.  It listed 24 “Modi’s guarantees” for 10 social groups and 14  sectors.

Sankalp Patra gives NRC a miss, sticks to UCC stand.

Watch: BJP Manifesto, key promises and initiatives

Earlier this month, the Congress in its manifesto promised 25 “guarantees” on five pillars.   

“In the next five years, it is Modi’s guarantee that we will work 24 by 7 for 2047,” the PM said, adding that the country’s 1.4 billion people’s ambition is Modi's mission. “Our focus”, he said, “will be to improve the dignity of life, quality of life, and employment generation through investment.”

The PM announced the BJP’s intent to continue its existing schemes for the “four pillars of developed India” — the youth, women, farmers, and the poor — such as free food for the poor and Kisan Nidhi for farmers, while expanding the ambit of some others.

For example, all elderly above 70, irrespective of their economic status, will get an Ayushman Bharat cover of ~5 lakh. The BJP has also promised  to increase Mudra loans amount from ~10 lakh to ~20 lakh, expand the PM Svanidhi scheme to vendors in rural areas, build 30 million more houses for the poor, and provide piped cooking gas.

Modi said the manifesto prioritises “quantity and quality of opportunities” by aiming to create jobs through infrastructure development and sets the agenda to work on developing “social, physical, and digital infrastructure” that will be the “bedrock of 21st-Century India”.

The PM promised a bullet train each, on the lines of India’s western region, getting the Ahmedabad-Mumbai one for the north, south, and eastern regions. He said the next five years would see India traverse from Chandrayaan to the Gaganyaan space mission and from hosting the G20 Summit to preparing to host the Olympics in 2036. The manifesto committed to making India into “a major product nation” and a global manufacturing hub.

The manifesto states that the National Democratic Alliance government would implement the ‘one nation, one election’ initiative, prepare common electoral rolls, reduce waiting lists for train travel, expand 5G networks, organise Ramayana festivals across the world, and implement a Uniform Civil Code, which he termed as “imperative for the nation's welfare”.

In an outreach to the people of Tamil Nadu, Modi said the next government would set up Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centres across the world and work towards promoting the Tamil language.

Speaking about the highlights of the manifesto, the PM said his government would promote the development of production clusters, incentivise seaweed and pearl farming, expand the Vande Bharat train network, introduce Vande Bharat Sleeper, Vande Bharat Chair Car, and Vande Bharat Metro trains, and work towards making India a major global hub for technology and engineering. The manifesto has promised to set up new satellite towns across the country for job creation.

In his “letter to the nation” in the manifesto, the PM said India needed to make the best of “this historic time” by being proactive, which is reflected in his government’s approach, which has “already worked on a plan of the decisions to be taken in the first 100 days of the new government”. The PM said the next five years were important as “our nation is ready to take off into a new phase of exponential growth, the Amrit Kaal.”

Unlike the BJP’s 2019 manifesto, which dealt with specifics, such as promising an investment of ~100 trillion in infrastructure, the document for the 2024 poll outlined the broad agenda for the next five years. Still, it reached out to specific sections of society. There are “Modi’s guarantees” for “garib parivar jan”, or the poor, committing to protect “garib ki thali” by becoming self-sufficient in the production of pulses, edible oils and vegetables, and for “middle-class parivar jan” by empowering the “neo-middle class” that has emerged out of poverty in the past 10 years, senior citizens, fishermen, workers, small traders, and the youth.

Modi said in the next five years his government would take India into the top three economies of the world, launch a final and decisive assault on poverty, intensify its battle against corruption, “unveil the next generation of reforms and take a number of pro-people decisions and actions”. In his speech, the PM urged people to give his party another mandate to shape India’s destiny for the next 1,000 years. He said the BJP had delivered on its every promise in the past 10 years. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who headed the manifesto drafting exercise, said Modi’s guarantees had become the “gold standard” of governance.

Modi noted the BJP was launching the manifesto on the auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar, the sixth day of Navaratri, and the celebration of the new year across the country, from West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. These are the states that the BJP has identified to improve its electoral performance. After unveiling the manifesto, the PM handed over its copies to representatives of the four “pillars", that is gareeb (the poor), yuva (the youth), annadata (farmers), and nari Shakti (women), or GYAN, who are beneficiaries of the government’s schemes.

Key Poll Promises
 

> Focus on jobs via investment

> Support those who have emerged out of poverty

> Ensure garib ki thali is affordable and nutritious

> Bullet train for North, South, East India 

> Implement Uniform Civil Code