The party is fighting the elections on the issue of ‘five nyay’ (justices) giving 25 guarantees which have been announced by the Congress president and Rahul Gandhi..reports Asian Lite News
The Congress Working Committee held a detailed discussion on the manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls which has a heavy thrust on the party’s ‘nyay’ agenda and authorised party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to grant it final approval.
Addressing a press conference after the CWC meeting, Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh said that the party will build on the momentum of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, during which the party announced five guarantees and a plan has been prepared to take the message of guarantees at the grassroots level.
The party is fighting the elections on the issue of ‘five nyay’ (justices) — ‘Bhagidari Nyay’, ‘Kisan Nyay’, ‘Nari Nyay’, ‘Shramik Nyay’ and ‘Yuva Nyay’ — giving 25 guarantees, five for each nyay, which have been announced by the Congress president Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.
Jairam Ramesh said that the party is ready for the Lok Sabha polls.
“The meeting we had today was not just for our manifesto but for our ‘nyay patra’. Congress is absolutely ready for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In the meeting today, there were discussions on our agenda. For the last 63 days, Rahul Gandhi has been talking about our five Nyay and has announced 25 guarantees…This is not just a simple manifesto but an important ‘nyay patra’ so that the people of our country can see a better future,” he said.
Laying thrust on the party’s promise to fulfil vacancies in the government, KC Venugopal said the Congress government in Telangana has given 30,000 government jobs in three months.
“In the same way, we are giving promises to the people of the country addressing the concerns of the rural youth, women and farmers,” he said.
Answering a query about the opposition’s allegation of misuse of probe agencies by the BJP-led government at the Centre, Ramesh said that the issue was discussed in detail at the CWC meeting and the party’s manifesto will mention steps to prevent misuse of agencies like CBI, Enforcement Directorate besides Income Tax Department.
The Congress, he said, will take its message of “nyay” to every home in the country over the next month.
The meeting of CWC, the party’s highest decision-making body, was held days after the announcement of schedule for the Lok Sabha elections. The Lok Sabha polls and assembly polls in four states will be held from April 19 and June 1 and results will be declared on June 4.
The manifesto committee, chaired by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, had earlier given its draft to Kharge.
According to sources, the manifesto would put forth the party’s intent to bring in necessary amendments to curb the misuse of central investigating agencies. For example, the manifesto is likely to talk about the need to do away with the controversial provisions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which are allegedly being misused by the Enforcement Directorate to target opposition leaders.
As per sources, there was a discussion on the party pledging to implement the recommendations of the Sachar committee on improving the social, economic, and educational status of Muslims.
“The guarantees announced under the five Nyays are going to be a game-changer in this election. The party will launch a massive campaign to take the Nyays to the people,” K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation, told reporters after the CWC meeting.
The Committee successfully ensured public participation in this exercise, rather than merely confining it to an academic one. It held extensive consultations in different parts of the country and submitted a draft to me on March 6th, 2024, Kharge said.
He said that suggestions and comments were also solicited through an online website which was rightly called “Awaaz Bharat Ki”.
“Whatever has been promised in Manifesto, will be strictly implemented. Before making promises in the Manifesto, in-depth deliberation has been made to ensure that these promises are implementable,” he said.
He said it is because of this very fact that right from 1926, the Congress Party’s Manifesto has been regarded as a “document of trust and commitment”.
Kharge recalled after independence, the Congress party’s first manifesto was released under the leadership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru which was famously called “What Congress stands for”.
Speaking on the recently concluded Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, he said, “Mumbai is an important place for us because our party was formed here. The freedom movement got its final fillip with the Quit India movement in 1942”.
“These were not just political Yatras but will be noted as the largest mass contact movement in our political history. One can’t undermine the fact that nobody in our times has undertaken such a massive exercise. Both these Yatras managed to take the issue of the people to the national centre stage,” Kharge said.
“During the Yatra, both me and Rahul Ji addressed several public rallies in which we spoke of our guarantees and commitments under the Five pillars of the Yatra – Kisan Nyay, Yuva Nyay, Naari Nyay, Shramik Nyay and Hissedari nyay,” he said. (ANI)
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