New Delhi: Right to apprenticeship, a legal guarantee for MSP and passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs are among the promises made by the Congress in its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls released Friday.
The manifesto, titled ‘Nyay Patra’, was released at the AICC headquarters in the presence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. It focused on five ‘pillars of justice’ and 25 guarantees under them.
The opposition party promised to fill nearly 30 lakh vacancies in sanctioned posts at various levels in the central government.
The party also said it would implement 10 per cent quota in jobs, educational institutions for economically weaker sections (EWS) for all castes, communities without discrimination if it comes to power.
The Rajasthan model of cashless insurance of up to Rs 25 lakh will be adopted for universal healthcare, it said.
The Congress will pass a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SC, ST and OBC if it comes to power in the general elections beginning April 19, the party promised.
The Congress also said it would conduct a nationwide socio-economic and caste census.
Appealing to people to look beyond religion, language, caste and choose wisely to install a democratic government, the party said the general elections present an opportunity to radically the change style of governance that has been in evidence over past decade.
It said it guarantees a new ‘right to apprenticeship act’ to provide one-year apprenticeship to every diploma holder or graduate below age of 25.
Besides, it said it will give legal guarantee to Minimum Support Prices (MSP) announced by the government every year as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission.
“We will immediately restore full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir,” the party stated in the manifesto.
It said it will launch an urban employment programme guaranteeing work for urban poor in reconstruction, renewal of urban infrastructure.
The party said in the document that it would abolish the Agnipath programme and direct the armed forces to resume normal recruitment to achieve full sanctioned strength: Cong manifesto.
While launching the manifesto, the party also drew a parallel between UPA and NDA eras and claimed that the former surpassed the latter in terms of economic growth.
Chidambaram, former Finance Minister in UPA government, slammed the government for “slowing” down the economy, compared to the UPA era and also accused it of diminishing democratic institutions.
“Economy grew at 8.5 per cent in UPA’s first term and average growth stood at 7.5 per cent in 10 years of Manmohan Singh government. However, under BJP government, the economy saw growth of 6.7 per cent and average growth has been 5.8 per cent over the past 10 years of Modi government,” Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram further stated that the worst fears expressed by Congress in 2019, have come true under BJP-led government.
“What we had predicted in 2019 has come to pass in 2024. We had said freedom will be restricted, that has happened; we had said institutions will be demeaned and that has happened; we had said that weaker sections will be denied their rights and privileges, that has happened,” Chidambaram said.
“We had said that democracy will be diminished and we will inexorably move toward autocracy, today we are described the same way by global thinkers,” he added.
PNN & Agencies