 "factory workers")
In its manifesto for the Karnataka assembly polls released on Tuesday, the Congress pledged to withdraw the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government’s amendment to the Factories Act that increased the working hours to 12. The Congress committed to reserving 80 per cent of jobs in the state for locals, including in the private sector.
If elected, the Congress promised to set up a gig workers’ welfare board with Rs 3,000 crore as seed money for a revolving fund and mandate a minimum hourly wage for all gig and unorganised sector workers in domestic and personal care, logistics, food delivery, e-pharmacy and transportation, the 62-page manifesto said.
The Congress manifesto enraged the Sangh Parivar for drawing a parallel between the Bajrang Dal and the Popular Front of India, vowing “decisive action” on outfits that spread religious or caste hatred. Vishva Hindu Parishad’s (VHP’s) Surendra Jain said it was unfortunate that the Congress compared a “patriotic organisation” with the PFI, a banned terror outfit.
The BJP released its 48-page “vows” on Monday, and, comparing the two documents, suggested significant consensus among the two principal players on social welfare despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi dubbing the Congress’ “five guarantees” as “revdi culture” that will “submerge the state in debt”.
In Bengaluru on Tuesday, Congress leader P Chidambaram shot back: “if the BJP announces something, it is ‘welfare’, and when the Congress does, it is ‘revdi’.”
Both the BJP and the Congress have promised to increase the incentive to dairy farmers from Rs5 per litre to Rs 7. The BJP, brushing aside the recent Congress allegations that the Amul milk cooperative could usurp Karnataka’s Nandini, pledged half a litre of “Nandini milk” daily to below-poverty-line (BPL) families. “We will not allow anyone to destroy the existence of our pride Nandini,” the Congress manifesto said.
It has assured credit cards with a limit of Rs 50,000 to dairy farmers and to procure cow and buffalo dung at Rs 3 per kg from them. Not just the BJP, the Congress has also committed to financial assistance for pilgrimages, money for restoring temples and maths, including a Rs 5,000-monthly honorarium to priests above 60 years of all religions.
If the BJP pledged free bus passes for 3 million organised sector women workers and girl students, the Congress has promised free travel to all women, students and senior citizens and free bus and rail travel to those appearing for competitive exams. The BJP said it has allocated Rs1,000 crore for free bus passes to 3 million women and Rs350 crore for girl students in the 2023-24 Budget.
Last year, the BJP government increased free power to poor SC and ST households to 75 units. The Congress has promised 200 free units to all houses. The Congress has pledged 10 kg free foodgrains to BPL families, while the BJP has promised five. The Congress has promised Rs 3,000 monthly stipend for two years to unemployed graduates, Rs 2,000 every month to all women heads of the family and Rs1 lakh one-time allowance to barbers. The BJP says it will increase widow pension from Rs 800-2,000. Chidambaram said the Congress' “five guarantees” will cost the state Rs 35,000 crore, about 10 per cent of its Rs 3.09-trillion Budget.
The BJP has promised three free cooking gas cylinders a year to all BPL families and will build 1 million houses in five years with up to Rs 5 lakh state government financial assistance, while the Congress has promised housing for all homeless by 2028.
The BJP has said it will create an “EV city on the outskirts of Bengaluru”, while the Congress announced SGST concessions to EVs within urban limits, 50 per cent of all government buses to be electric in two years and making it compulsory to install EV charging points in apartments. The Congress said it will make public the caste census its government conducted during its previous stint, while the BJP has batted for a committee for uniform civil code and order an NRC.
