Congress Manifesto: Dares to be different

All parties present their manifestos on the eve of elections. It is a healthy democratic practice. But over the years, it was getting enveloped by distrust and indifference. Of course, there are glorious exceptions like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s promises of Five-Year Plans in 1952 and 1957 and Indira Gandhi in 1971 as well as Rajiv Gandhi in 1984.

Either the parties used the manifestos for just promises without roadmaps or more often without even the confidence. The party cadre and leaders at various levels did not bother much about implementing the promises. Once the elections were over, the manifestos were shelved. Even the Congress party had these severe shortcomings.

Rahul Gandhi has always been aware of these perversions. He realised years ago, that the manifestos became redundant because they did not represent the expectations, aspirations and hopes of the people.

They were drafted often by people who thought they knew everything and had solutions to all problems the people faced. He decided that the manifestos must be drafted by people, articulated by various segments and finally monitored by them.

The comprehensive scheme titled “NYAY” is the hallmark of the manifesto. Indeed, it is a doable programme and gives a clear roadmap of how to reach over five crore families with Rs 72,000 per year, or Rs 6000 per month. It will lift the so-called ”disposable” people from their life of oppression, exploitation, poverty and give them self-reliance. Let us accept the simple fact that it is economic and financial independence that gives the deprived humans the freedom and dignity to live.

The Congress manifesto presented by Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, therefore, marks a break from the past, even Congress past. A team of leaders, activists, thinkers, planners, statisticians, researchers toured the whole country, visiting from tribals to traders, workers to farmers, entrepreneurs to industrialists—small, medium, large, housewives to unemployed youth, academics and scholars and soon. These teams prepared extensive reports.

That created the base for the manifesto. That is why the tag line: Congress Promises; Congress Delivers.

This is neither utopia, nor false hopes. The manifesto provides a roadmap as to how to fulfil the promises. This manifesto admits that there are problems, but also assures that they can be overcome.

There are no vague and deliberately misleading assurances like two crore jobs per year, Rs 15 lakh in each person’s account or bringing (imagined) trillions of rupees stacked in foreign banks.

It was inevitable that there was tremendous curiosity and interest about the Congress manifesto. Particularly now when the people are feeling cheated, disillusioned and frighteningly misled. The media was forced to pay attention. The intellectuals had to respond. In just one sweep, Rahul Gandhi has changed the agenda, national discourse and the political mood. There are two types of media persons, political pundits and intellectuals.

There are those who hope, even in otherwise hopeless situations. And there are those who live in and spread despair. Similarly, cynicism comes naturally to many journalists. But there are also media persons, who refuse to fall in that trap and report positive things. Then there are eternal sceptics, who never think anything is credible. They can express doubt even about the Sun rising in the east!

In the last five years, the cynics, the sceptics, the nihilists dominated the media, the intellectual discourse and public debate. In that atmosphere, in that cultural vacuum grew the non-existent ghosts, the nightmares of Hindu Muslim riots, the imagined fear of the global Islamic terrorism. The fear of Pakistan, supported by the so-called militant local Muslim groups was manifestos are not worth the paper they are printed on, that political parties do not give it a second glance after elections. The Congress manifesto is a document that is both different and revolutionary cultivated and spread through the pliant media.

This polarisation had begun nearly thirty years ago when the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad started the so called Rath Yatra to campaign for the demolition of the Babri Masjid and build Ram Mandir there. That Yatra was led by none other than Lal Krishan Advani, the man who has met his nemesis, and that too at the hands of someone, who has further spread the poison of polarisation.

Till then, no party dared to incorporate divisive issues as agendas in manifestos. The BJP brought the Ayodhya issue in the manifesto. In the name of reforming Muslim society, issues like Talaq became a political issue. The thread of national integrity began to get challenged in the name uniform civil code, abolition of article 370 and 35 A. Superficially these issues were made to appear just and fair in the constitutional format. But in realpolitik the hidden agenda was sinister, divisive and dangerous.

It is obvious that Narendra Modi and his”gang of four” are totally rattled after the release of the Congress manifesto. In fact, the “best certificate” that can come is from the BJP. The Sangh Parivar is attacking the Congress manifesto with vicious language and twisting arguments.

That they are forced to give up their “Hindutva” agenda and talk on real issues like jobs, rural distress, freedom from fear, separate budget for farmers and six per cent allocation of GDP for education, special attention for healthcare and so on, is testimony to how rattled they are.

The language of the manifesto, even the foreword by Rahul Gandhi, is so profound that it would cause a complex to the self-styled intellectual editors, who often delude themselves that their style, turn of phrase, sarcasm and “objective cynicism” influences the people.

That is why the commentariat lays so much emphasis over style, underplaying substance! The Congress president, on the other hand, has given rich content and eloquent stylistic form to the manifesto. He says that the choice before the people is stark:

“Will India be a free and democratic country, and will the people of India be free from fear, free to live, work, pray, eat, love and marry according to their wishes, be free from poverty and free to pursue their ambitions? Or will India be governed by a pernicious ideology that will trample upon people’s rights, our institutions, conventions and the healthy differences that are the essence of a multicultural country?”...

“Will India be able to lift all our people with the tide of growth, and will it get rid of poverty-or, will India become a country marked by gross inequalities of income, wealth and power?...”

“The last five years have been disastrous for the people of India. The youth have lost jobs. Farmers have lost hope. Traders have lost business. Micro, small and medium enterprises have lost their confidence. Women have lost the sense of security. Deprived communities have lost their traditional rights. Institutions have lost independence...”

“The harshest blow is that our citizens have lost their faith in the words of the Prime Minister and his government. He has given us only grandiose promises, empty slogans, failed programmes, false statistics and an overall climate of fear, intimidation and hatred...”

“In this time of deep crisis, the Indian National Congress promises a clean break from the past five years. With this manifesto, the Congress offers to you the only national alternative that is unwavering in its commitment to truth, freedom, dignity, self respect and prosperity to our people . We promise to make India strong and united and a just and prosperous society.

I don’t think, anything can be added to this human, compassionate and affirmative promise, which lifts the veil of cynicism and depressing pessimism.