The Hindu : Action-oriented manifesto, says Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

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Action-oriented manifesto, says Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, shows the party's manifesto at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. — Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

NEW DELHI, MARCH 22. The Congress today described the coming Lok Sabha elections as a ``clash of sharply competing values, of diametrically opposite ideologies'' and against the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was ``systematically undermining the very essence of Indian civilisation''.

``The Congress' goal is to defeat the forces of obscurantism and bigotry who contributed nothing to the Freedom movement or the making of our Constitution and whose sole objective is to subvert our millennial heritage and composite nationhood,'' the party said in its 32-page manifesto.

Releasing the document, the party president, Sonia Gandhi, said it was packaged differently, action-oriented and transparent unlike the BJP whose real agenda was hidden behind the veneer of the National Democratic Alliance. As a measure of the party's commitment to implementation of the manifesto and accountability, she said every year on October 2, birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress would bring out a progress report of its implementation.

Spread over five sections, the document provides an overview of 45 years of the party's achievements, the reasons for which the party should be voted back to power, the ``failures'' of the NDA/BJP, and the priorities, plans and programmes of the Congress. In addition, over the next few days the party would publish ``vision documents'' on economic and political affairs, social empowerment, and national security and foreign affairs separately.

Listing the ``monumental failures'' of the BJP-led NDA Government, the document said the last five years were marked by massive unemployment, falling growth rates, acute distress among farmers and farm labourers, compromised national security and social disharmony. Also, it accused the Government of subverting the school curricula, destroying probity, denigrating key institutions and undermining the independence of the foreign policy.

On the contentious Ayodhya issue, the manifesto said all parties must wait for and abide by the verdict of the courts.

For minorities, the Congress pledged to extend reservation for the economically deprived persons belonging to communities that were at present not entitled to such reservation. It also promised to amend the Constitution to establish a commission for minority educational institutions that will provide direct affiliation for minority professional institutions to central universities.

The Congress promised to spend budgeted funds ``to the fullest'' and ensure elimination of delay in modernisation of the armed forces. It also committed to maintaining a ``credible nuclear weapons programme'' while simultaneously evolving ``demonstrable and verifiable confidence-building measures with its nuclear neighbours''. Promising to make the National Security Council a professional and effective institution, the party said it would move resolutely to implement the recommendations of the Subrahmanyam Committee on Kargil to strengthen intelligence networks. On relations with Pakistan, the Congress said unlike the BJP it had been consistent on the issue of dialogue with Islamabad on all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. The party said it had advocated formal and informal talks on the basis of the Shimla Agreement. It said that Pakistan's sponsorship of cross-border terrorism must end completely once and for all. ``If it continues, then the Indian state has the responsibility to protect its citizens''.

It promised to carry out administrative, police, judicial and electoral reforms and tackle the root causes of corruption and the generation of black money. Besides deregulation and removal of laws that have outlived its utility, the party felt that transparency in party financing and state funding of elections would help in this direction.

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