The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): Indian electorate have their own political mind and they don’t simply believe on the electoral promises and political guarantees being distributed freely for quite some time now by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his chief opponent Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. PM Modi has said all Congress guarantees in the past have fallen flat, while Rahul Gandhi has said trust in Modi is guarantee of betrayal. It is in this backdrop the very reliability of political guarantees has sharply been in focus and is under serious public scrutiny.
PM Narendra Modi has been distributing “Modi ki Guarantee” since November 2023 state elections, which are not at all quantifiable in most of the cases, since his earlier quantified promises such as giving jobs to all hands (2 crore yearly) or doubling farmers income by 2022 proved merely slogans and remained unfulfilled. Quantification of promises made his position false, and he is now distributing abstract promises that can never be quantified. He said that Modi’ Guarantee means a guarantee of fulfilment of promises.
The top 10 guarantees of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been projected with a statement by narendramodi.in that Modi ki Guarantee means a Vikasit Bharat, Ek Shrestha Bharat. It is a guarantee for the development of the youth, empowerment of the women, welfare of the farmers, and all those marginalized and vulnerable who have been ignored for decades. He has also given a guarantee of a developed India by 2047. Since most of his guarantees are merely abstract ideas which can never be quantified, and PM Modi can always claim that he has fulfilled his promises. Earlier Modi gave substantial quantifiable promises majority of which remained unfulfilled, he is not repeating this mistake this time. For example, he has been giving guarantee of farmers welfare and remunerative MSP for their crops, but when asked for giving legal guarantee for MSP he backtracks. If his promises are reliable, why should he backtrack? People are trying to find answer to such questions.
Against PM Narendra Modi’s abstract promises, Rahul Gandhi has been giving substantial promises in the form of five-fold justice and 5 specific guarantees in each adding up to 25 altogether. Rahul Gandhi said the other day, “Modiji, before new guarantees, calculate the old guarantees.” He said, “Guarantee of 2 crore jobs every year–false. Guarantee of doubling a farmer’s income — false. Guarantee to bring back black money–false. Guarantee to reduce inflation–false. Guarantee of ₹15 lakh in every account–false. Guarantee of women’s safety and dignity–false. Guarantee of making 100 smart cities–false. Guarantee to strengthen the rupee–false. Guaranteed to show China a red-eye — Lie. Guarantee that I will neither eat nor allow anyone to eat–false”. “BJP government means guarantee of lies and injustice, Congress will do justice to the dreams of the country,” Rahul said.
Rahul Gandhi has come out with his guarantee of five-fold justice – Bhagidari Nyay, Kisan Nyay, Nari Nyay, Sharakik Nyay and Yuva Nyay – which the Congress Working Committee has unanimously approved on March 19 and authorised the party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to give final shape to the party manifesto. These five-fold justice include a set of 25 guarantees, five in each.
Against the abstract nature of Modi’s guarantees – these 25 guarantees given by the Congress are specific which include promises such as creating 3 million government jobs, Rs 1 lakh for all poor households, right to apprenticeship and removing the 50 per cent cap on reservation to provide more quotas after conducting a nationwide caste census.
Under right to apprenticeship, degree holders will be given one year’s apprenticeship in government or private firms and all those who would get apprenticeship, will get Rs1 lakh in a year. It also promises better working condition and social security for workers. A corpus of Rs5000 crore for each district has also been promised to promote startups for five years.
Congress is giving a promise of minimum wage for Rs 400 per day including that of MGNREGA workers. Additionally, and urban employment guarantee is also promised as there is already for rural workers under MGNREGA. The party has also promised legal guarantee for MSP for farmers for all crops. Congress gives much more guarantees for five sections for the society – youth, women, workers, farmers, and the marginalised sections.
BJP has said that Congress guarantees aimed at luring electorate but not development of the country, while PM Narendra Modi is not only giving guarantees but also working towards making them a reality and also positioning the country as the fifth strong economic power in the world.
On the other hand, Congress says that BJP’s guarantees would meet the same fate as the “India Shining” slogan of 2004. Congress leader KC Venugopal has said that Congress’ five guarantees are going to be a game changer in this election. Congress would take its guarantees to every household across the country in the next few days, he said, deriding BJP’s guarantees as mere rhetoric and a “bunch of lies”.
Congress believes that Modi’s guarantee would not work and is claiming that Modi’s earlier warrantees have already expired, while BJP believes that Modi’s guarantee would enable him and the BJP to return to power for their third term. To know the people’s verdict we will have to wait for June 4, when the votes will be counted. (IPA Service)
By Dr. Gyan Pathak