Nothing can be more disgraceful and shameful for a political party than the charge that its election manifesto — the sacrosanct document for any political party entering the battle of the ballot — has been copied from a rival political party.
Nothing can be more laughable and ludicrous for a political party that its election manifesto is a “cut and paste” job from the election manifesto of a rival political party.
Nothing can be more damning for a political party that it has released its much-delayed election manifesto after voters have reached the polling booth.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition party, which is widely tipped to win the ongoing Indian general elections on May 16 when votes are counted, has been hauled over coals by rival parties on all these charges.
This theater of absurd was in full play on April 7 when a small chunk of India’s 814 million voters cast their votes in the first of the nine-phase polling, which will come to an end five weeks later on May 12. The BJP released its election manifesto on April 7 hours after the first round of voting started.
The document immediately drew flak from rival parties, particularly the ruling Congress. There is nothing surprising or unexpected about that.
But the surprising part is the reasons for criticism of the BJP election manifesto.
The Congress party leveled most serious charges against the BJP on the latter’s manifesto, including an embarrassing accusation that the BJP’s manifesto is straight copy and a “cut and paste” job from the Congress manifesto released on March 26.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi blew the BJP election manifesto into smithereens with his damning accusation of the BJP doing a copycat act by foolishly copying even the date of release of the Congress manifesto.
“The BJP and Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi (chairman of the BJP’s election manifesto committee whose preface is dated March 26) seem to have copied the date of the manifesto also. The date of the manifesto is 26th of March — it is the date when the Congress party releases its manifesto. It is amazing. I do not think in the history of electoral politics of India, you had had this kind of a bizarre mindless blind copying which shows apart from the humor and the comicality attached with it, it shows how seriously they insult the intelligence of the people of India. It shows how seriously they take a manifesto,” he told reporters at a media briefing.
Singhvi also said the BJP manifesto was “nothing but not even a cut and paste job of the Congress manifesto, it seems it is the same manifesto except that the name has been changed.” He twisted the Congress knife into the BJP by remarking thus: “It has a first as manifesto, a first in the electoral history of India, namely it is the first manifesto which is released after people have reached the polling booth... Indeed a manifesto after polls have started is a perversion, a subversion of the very concept and definition of a manifesto … (by which) a prime ministerial aspirant (read Narendra Modi) and his presumptuous party (read the BJP) has insulted the intelligence of the people of India.”
The Congress spokesperson dismissed the BJP manifesto as a “partial high school essay of an uninformed student” which is ignorance at its best and amnesia at its worst.
The Congress criticism is not invalid. Here is more, why.
l The BJP manifesto talks of freight and industrial corridors, when the UPA government has been handling the biggest infrastructure project, the Mumbai-Delhi industrial corridor, for many years.
l It talks of Low Income Housing when the UPA government has been working on similar schemes named after former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for years. In fact, the Congress party has declared its intention to make the right to housing a constitutional one in its next government, Singhvi pointed out.
l The BJP has talked of pensions when the Congress has already declared to make the Right to Pension as a constitutional right in its next government.
l The BJP manifesto talks of linking agriculture to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (MNREGA) whereas MNREGA is already linked to agriculture and more than 50 percent MNREGA works relate to agriculture.
l The BJP has promised to defense personnel One Rank One Pension, an ambitious scheme the UPA government implemented just last month.
Congress leader and Union Minister Jairam Ramesh too has accused the BJP of hastily preparing a “high school essay” by lifting verbatim some of the portions of his own speeches and writings. “For example, they talk about ‘Rurban India’— the area which are rapidly urbanizing. This I wrote almost 10 years ago,” Ramesh said.
The BJP election manifesto, like all other political parties’ manifesto, is high on promises but low on details. It talks of building 100 new cities without going into the how’s and when’s.One good feature of the BJP manifesto is that it lays solid emphasis on the federal structure of India by underling the critical role of the states. But then this is more of a political compulsion for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who needs support of chief ministers of the four other BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Goa. Another redeeming feature of the BJP election manifesto is that it is not only silent about the Saffron agenda but has also counter-balanced it by talking about the rights of the minorities, especially Muslims.
But then this too is a political compulsion of Modi. After all, he needs all communities’ support to win this now-or-never electoral battle and more allies in the post-poll scenario if the BJP-led coalition falls short of the magic figure of 272. The world will know on May 16 whether the people of India embrace or reject the BJP election manifesto.
- The writer is a New Delhi-based political commentator who tweets @Kishkindha.
