Less of the same

It might be fashionable to dismiss manifestos as unimportant,unreliable guides to what a political party will implement when actually faced with the trade-offs of power. There is an element of truth in that,but then there is in all exaggerations. What all can agree on,however,is that manifestos are one of the few real markers of what the policy-thinking parts of a political party are thinking about policy. And thats why the Congresss manifesto,released on Tuesday by Sonia Gandhi and an unusually combative Manmohan Singh,is worth a read.

Naturally,the manifesto privileges continuity: if nothing else,in its discussion of several schemes and programmes that the Congress-led UPA government introduced. It also constantly reiterates the Congresss claim that it is the only national party: the text reminds us that general elections are national elections and here it puts national in bold letters. These are broad questions of claim and counter-claim,and could be endlessly dissected. But what can we learn from the proposals for future initiatives,which contain the real heart of what a party in government might have learnt in five years?

For one,compared to the CPMs manifesto,the Congresss claims clearly eye the strains already on the fisc. When set by the 2004 edition,there are fewer big-ticket,big-bill ideas visible. But there are some ideas,certainly. One is the proposal that university students should all have access to either scholarships or,more interestingly,educational loans. Hopefully this will clear the way for a system that relies less on subsidies and more on individual choice. Then theres the right to food suggestion,which will spark useful discussion of whether the NREGAs rights-based approach could work to streamline the public distribution system. And finally,an example of a bold move: the proposal that municipal authorities be made self-financing. Thats not something that one would hear either from state chieftains,attached as they are to the money-generating potentials for them in city governance; or from those on the left concerned about exacerbating divides between rural and urban India. And,now lets wait for the BJPs ideas,which will be even more interesting,perhaps after all,the party in opposition is so rarely forced to be constructive.