With just a few weeks to go for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party on Friday released its poll manifesto ‘Nyay Patra’ which focuses mainly on unemployment issues and promises caste census in its five big guarantees.
In its manifesto, the grand-old party has said that, if voted to power, the party will conduct a nationwide caste census to “identify the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions”. Congress said that based on the data, it will strengthen the agenda for castes that need affirmative action.
The manifesto was released by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior party leader Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and manifesto committee head P Chidambaram.
Kharge, while highlighting the details of the manifesto, said the ‘Nyay Patra’ focuses on ‘Panch Nyay’ (five guarantees) – “Nari Nyay, Shramik Nyay, Kisaan Nyay, Yuva Nyay and Hissedari Nyay.”
“This manifesto of ours will be remembered as ‘Nyay ka dastavez’ in the political history of the country. The Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra, which was run under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, focused on five pillars during the yatra: Yuva Nyay, Kisan Nyay, Naari Nyay, Shramik Nyay and Hissedari Nyay was announced. Out of these five pillars, 25 guarantees emerge, and in every 25 guarantees, someone or the other gets benefited, under this, we have our manifesto here,” Kharge said.
Apart from this, the Congress promises to scrap Agnipath Scheme and oppose ‘One Nation, One Election’.
According to the manifesto, for women welfare, Congress resolves to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme to provide Rs 1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer. The poor will be identified among the families at the bottom of the income pyramid. The party will also reserve one-half (50 per cent) of central government jobs for women starting in 2025.
For the farmers, Congress says it will give a legal guarantee to the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) announced by the government every year, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission.
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Shedding light on the concerns of the electoral process, Congress Party manifesto states, ” We will amend the election laws to combine the efficiency of the electronic voting machine (EVM) and the transparency of the ballot paper. Voting will be through the EVM but the voter will be able to hold and deposit the machine-generated voting slip into the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) unit. The electronic vote tally will be matched against the VVPAT slip tally.”
Under the ‘Defending the Constitution’ topic, the Congres promises “not to interfere with personal choices of food and dress, to love and marry, and to travel and reside in any part of India. All laws and rules that interfere unreasonably with personal freedoms will be repealed… We promise to amend the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and make defection (leaving the original party on which the MLA or MP was elected) an automatic disqualification of the membership in the Assembly or Parliament.”
