The dichotomy in the priorities, target groups, and programmes of the two major national parties for the 2024 Indian General Election could not be starker. This is reflected in sharp relief in the manifestos of both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress Party. An analysis of both documents shows that the parties’ respective understanding of the Indian condition – and the mitigation strategies each promises to implement for the greater good – is premised on two very different Indias, as it were.
The broad political messaging in the BJP and Congress manifestos is explicit. While the former projects confidence in coming back to power and promises, effectively, more of the same, the Congress, as the challenger, has done some out-of-the-box thinking to try and make a mark among an electorate that has been wary of voting for it at the national level over the past decade.
The BJP presents its focus on infrastructure creation and making India a “product nation” as the stepping stone to the country becoming a developed country or Viksit Bharat by the 100th anniversary of Independence in 2047. No major new welfare schemes have been announced in the manifesto which includes promises to increase the Minium Support Price (MSP) for farmers, extend the Ayushman Bharat health scheme to senior citizens (over 70 years of age), and enable large-scale manufacturing.
The party seems confident that its personality-centric campaign crafted around Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his “guarantees” will do the trick. Reading between the lines of its manifesto, the BJP also implicitly derides the political culture of freebies or revdi and doubles down on the there’s-no-free-lunch philosophy albeit with a security net for the poor and marginalised sections of society. Apart from a manufacturing and infrastructure push, the BJP manifesto focuses on controlling inflation, ensuring macro stability, and placing a premium on fiscal prudence as it promises to make India the world’s third-largest economy (after the US and China) during its third term if re-elected. But what it doesn’t do, is set a target in the manifesto for what India’s GDP per capita – currently an abysmal US $2,000 – should be as the third-largest economy in nominal GDP terms. Therein lies the rub.
It is this perceived policy gap which elides the actual spending power or money in hand of individual citizens which brings forth the issue of the concentration of wealth in a few hands that the Congress has tried to focus on.
The Congress manifesto doesn’t pull it punches, promising cross-sectoral reservations on the basis of socio-economic/caste criteria, and a wealth redistribution effort. These bold if controversial assurances have the potential to strike a chord among the electorate if pitched right in the election campaign. Despite criticism from the usual suspects of the Congress seemingly intent on taking the country back to its “crony socialist” path, and India being reduced to relying on quotas and cash transfers in lieu of economic growth, there is a vast multitude of Indians for whom these assurances matter deeply. The party has shown courage in going against conventional wisdom and promising to reset economic policy.
Among its traction-inducing promises are the Rs 1 lakh annual cash transfers to the poor; a new employment-linked incentive scheme for corporates to encourage additional hiring; a nationwide socio-economic/caste census and reservations based on its results; raising the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SC, ST, and OBC sections of society; making available easy institutional credit to SCs and STs; a massive increase in health expenditure; legal guarantee for MSP; increasing wages under MGNREGA; introducing an urban employment guarantee programme; and bringing in a law to curb monopolies in media as well as cross-ownership of media by mega corporates. Congress has said it will refer cases of suspected monopolies to the Competition Commission of India and all media organisations will be required to disclose their ownership structures (direct and indirect), as well as cross holdings if any.
Combined with some of the Congress’ forward-looking manifesto promises, these so-called throwback policies may, if propagated sensibly, explained fully, and implemented without bloated bureaucracies indulging in rampant corruption, give Congress a fighting chance in the 2024 poll. Especially, outside of the metros and big cities of the country where economic distress is real and the voice of the marginalised often goes unheard.
