Youth, women, poor, and farmers form the four pillars of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto released on 14 April in India. All four, under the ambit of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP is pitching as a future Bharat, which is secure, developed, and prosperous.
As India goes to the seven-phased polls from 19 April, the manifesto, called “Sankalp Patra” or Letter of Resolution, was launched at the BJP headquarters at New Delhi.
PM Modi, present at the launch, asserted that the country needs a stable government with full majority in view of the uncertainties around the world. He presented copies of the manifesto to representatives of the four broad groups key to BJP’s next five-year plan: GYAN or Gareeb, Yuva, Annadata, Nari (poor, youth, farmer, women).
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These groups will remain the key beneficiaries of the government’s promised schemes.
While the manifesto outlines a roadmap to transform India into a developed country by 2047, it also presents a performance report of what the BJP has achieved in the last two terms, since 2014.
“In the last 10 years, BJP has implemented every aspect of its manifesto as a guarantee. BJP has restored the sanctity of the manifesto,” PM Modi said at the launch.
“BJP will start working on the promises made in the manifesto immediately after the results are declared on June 4,” he said. “I present this Sankalp Patra of the BJP as a document of ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ to the people of the nation for their blessings.”
For full manifesto, click here: https://www.bjp.org/files/2024-04/Modi-Ki-Guarantee-Sankalp-Patra-English.pdf
Key highlights of BJP’s manifesto
Here are the top promises of the BJP “Sankalp Patra” for the 2024 parliamentary polls:
For the poor
BJP has promised to help alleviate poverty and focus on giving dignified life to the poor. Among the initiatives, it has listed:
- Free ration for the poor for the next 5 years
- Protect “garib ki thali” (the poor person’s plate) with price stabilisation fund for vegetables and pulses
- Continue free healthcare services of up to Rs 5 lakh
- Redevelop slums
- Free electricity
For middle-class families
BJP has promised to support the aspirations of India’s largely middle-class families through:
- Quality housing, healthcare, education and employment opportunities
- Working with state governments for real estate and housing schemes
- Creating high-quality jobs for tier-2 and 3 cities
- Constructing modern road network, enhance rail and metro connectivity, develop electric vehicle infrastructure, and promote 5G and 6G tech
- Develop sustainable cities
For women
Focusing on women as a core development group, the party is promising:
- Equal growth opportunities for women in the workforce
- Rural women to become “Lakhpati Didis”
- Integrating women self-help groups in key service sectors like IT, healthcare, education, etc
- Increasing women participation in sports
- Constructing public toilets for women
- Strengthening emergency response system for women’s security
For youth
BJP has said its vision is to build a developed country where the youth can realise its potential. It promises to do so by:
- Enacting laws against government recruitment exam paper leaks
- Conducting transparent public exams
- Expanding the startup ecosystem through public-private partnership
- Provide more funding and mentorship for startups
- Increasing jobs in manufacturing sector
- New jobs in tourism and infrastructure sectors
- Establishing global centres for high-value services
For farmers
BJP has promises that farmers remain its top-most priority. The manifesto lists the following for farmers:
- Sustained financial support, Rs 6,000 annual aid to continue
- Increase in minimum support price or MSP for major crops
- Increased production of nutritious vegetables
- Positioning India as global nutrition hub
- Strengthening natural farming
- Expanding irrigation facilities
- Launching a satellite for crop forecasting, soil health, and weather prediction
- Expanding dairy cooperative network
- Enhancing fisheries network and providing government aids to fishermen
In addition to the core groups, the manifesto has also focused on world relations. It promises to strengthen India’s position as the leading voice of Global South – and get India a permanent membership at the UN Security Council.
Experts have pointed out that the manifesto also clearly pitches some key change to India’s societal framework.
For example, implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), as well as the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The CAA will be India’s new citizenship law to fast-track naturalisation for select religious groups., notably Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 31 December 2014. The law excludes Muslims, who are a majority in all three nations.
The UCC on the other hand, is aimed at replacing personal laws based on religions, customs, and traditions with one common law for everyone irrespective of religion, cast, creed, sexual orientation, and gender.
Under the “One” umbrella, the BJP has also reiterated its commitment towards ‘One Nation, One Election’, a proposal to simultaneously conduct parliamentary as well as state-level elections.
Other notable things from the BJP manifesto include northeastern states, with focus on resolving their inter-state border disputes, and maintaining peace in that region.
