Bharatiya Janata Party came out with its election manifesto Friday underscoring “Ram and Roti”, promising 35 kg rice or wheat at Rs 2/kg per month for BPL families, rebuilding Ram temple at Ayodhya and abrogation of Article 370 giving special status to Jammu & Kashmir.
BJP manifesto that came after 11 years as in 1999 and 2004 the party had released NDA manifesto along with its allies, is more or less a populist manifesto with benefits for all sectors, including women, government employees, armed forces, farmers and senior citizens.
But at that time, BJP had excluded Ram temple from its NDA manifesto, saying it remained on the party’s agenda but was not a part of the NDA’s national agenda for governance. This time, however, the prime ministerial candidate releasing BJP’s manifesto said it was not binding on its allies.
“I am not asking them to accept it,” said Advani, “we will send it to them and ask which are the things they agree with and then jointly prepare the NDA’s agenda for good governance and vision for the country’s future.”
Regarding differences of opinion between BJP and its allies on the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Advani said they (allies) were against passing a law in Parliament for the construction of temple but had no objection if the court decided the matter or community leaders arrived at a mutual settlement.
BJP slammed Congress-led UPA for weak governance and remaining failed to check terror attacks. It has promised in its manifesto that it will bring an improved POTA type law. We, if voted to power, will detect, detain and deport illegal immigrants and introduce national identity card for all citizens. The 81-year-old Advani said our motto is “good governance, development and security”.
For women and senior citizens, the manifesto promises to exempt the personnel income tax for income up to 3.5 lakh rupees per annum, while for men, it is 3 lakh. This apart, senior citizens will completely be exempted from tax on their pension income. The age for senior citizens getting travel benefits will be reduced from 65 to 60 years. It also promises to scrap fringe benefit tax and abolish central sales tax, CST.
Not only this, the populist manifesto also promises armed forces and para military forces a complete exemption from income tax, and constitution of separate pay commission for removing anomalies in the existing pay structures, besides the implementation of “one rank one pension”.
The BJP also promises to bring back huge amount of money estimated at $5.7 billion that is stashed away in the Swiss banks and other tax havens and will ban foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail sector.
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