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Congress manifesto a packet of lies: BJP

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday described the Congress manifesto as a “packet of lies and a document of deception,” which has not cared to present an audit of promises made in 2004 and guarantees that remain unfulfilled.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the existence of the United Progressive Alliance by pointing out that most of the allies had now broken away and there was no such thing left that could call itself the UPA.

Unemployment

In 2004, the Congress promised to create one crore jobs a year. Instead, by this March end, the country would have added one crore jobless people.

As for the UPA’s flagship programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Mr. Prasad said only 22 lakh persons got jobs for a mere 100 days, against 3.8 crore people registered.

The BJP was critical of the manifesto for not spelling out any concrete steps it would take to strengthen national security in the face of repeated terror attacks.

It was a very serious issue, especially in the context of the increasing power of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it said.

On infrastructure, the BJP reiterated its criticism that the UPA neglected the national highways programme.

The promised electricity connection to every rural household had also not materialised.

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