Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge releases the party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections along with party leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. (Express file photo by Anil Sharma)
The Congress party has certainly come out with a progressive manifesto for the 2024 general elections. It talks about the five largest sections of society and promises to give them justice or nyay. It vows to address social justice issues through hissedari nyay, youth issues through yuva nyay, the problems of farmers through kisan nyay, women’s concerns through nari nyay and those of workers through shramik nyay. Let’s examine what the Congress missed in these sections.
On social justice, the manifesto says, “Congress will conduct a nation-wide Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions. Based on the data, we will strengthen the agenda for affirmative action. The Congress guarantees that it will pass a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SC, ST and OBC.”
What the manifesto missed on social justice
While the promise to raise the reservation cap is welcome, the manifesto should have mentioned that this would be in proportion to the population of these sections. Here the Congress also missed out on the concept of “true social justice and complete inclusion”. Proportional representation is the essence of any democracy. The Congress manifesto should have gone beyond the SECC and clearly said that the SC, ST and OBCs would be given representation in all the positions of power in proportion to their population, apart from education and government jobs. These sections would get reservation in all the legislative houses; councils of ministers, whether at the state or central level; the higher judiciary, that is, all the high courts and the Supreme Court; all levels of bureaucracy, including the secretary level; all public institutions, universities, investigative agencies, quasi-judicial bodies or tribunals, the Election Commission and governor posts. Only when this is done can we say that true social justice has been delivered.
The missing integrated OBC list
In the section about youth issues, the promise of filling 30 lakh vacancies in the central government is welcome, but Congress should have first talked about inclusion of all the state-level OBC castes in the central OBC list. If these jobs are filled without including all these OBC castes in the central OBC list, they’ll all be left out. This would be a grave injustice.
On nari nyay (women’s justice), the promise to give Rs one lakh per annum to women in poor families is a welcome move but it must include all the farmer families with a land holding of less than two hectares per family as those below this threshold live a hand-to-mouth existence.
Beyond MSP
In the section about farmers, giving a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price would fulfil a longstanding demand. Congress must clarify whether the MSP would be declared on the C2 plus 50 per cent formula. Congress also talks about setting up a commission on agricultural finance for loan forbearance. Rahul Gandhi has been talking about cancelling farmers’ debt if the INDIA bloc is voted to power. I hope he keeps his promise of a complete farm loan waiver and doesn’t entangle the issue in a commission which only delays or comes up with unjustified conditions for waivers. Another issue that Congress overlooked here is increasing the amount being given under the PM-Kisan scheme from a paltry Rs 6,000 per annum to a respectable Rs 24,000 per annum. This should include full-time farm labourers as well. Agricultural work should also be included in MNREGA jobs. This will bring down the cost of cultivation for farmers and also ensure year-round work for labourers at the village level. A pension scheme of at least Rs 2,000 per month for farmers and labourers over the age of 60 should also be included in the manifesto as they have no social security in old age.
The promise of smaller states
Another important issue is that of smaller states. The population of some of our states is huge. Uttar Pradesh, with 25 crore people, has a population of more than most countries in the world. This makes large states very difficult to govern. Local aspirations are also not taken care of in large states. The first States Reorganisation Commission was set up just after Independence. The population of the states has increased almost four times since then. In its manifesto, Congress must include a promise to create smaller states if it forms the next government. This should also be done before the next delimitation of the Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies, which is to be done in the next few years.
The fight against the BJP is not a cake-walk, despite the low voting percentage in the early phases of the election. The Opposition should be cautious and fight with all its might till the last vote has been cast and counted. This begins with a manifesto which could give INDIA a clear edge. The Opposition must appreciate that this time, many people are fighting the elections against the BJP — farmers who sacrificed much during the farm agitation, the women wrestlers who fought against those who harassed them, the women of Manipur who were paraded naked, unemployed youth who are staring at a dark future, labourers who were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to reach home during the Covid-19 lockdown and the poor who became poorer still in the last ten years. Congress must listen to them and amend its manifesto to include the issues concerning them, in order to ensure victory. The stakes are high this time and the adversary is no pushover.
The writer is president, Kisan Shakti Sangh and an alumnus of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA)
