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The BJP on Friday declared the party’s manifesto for the Assembly elections, hours before the state goes to the polls in the first phase, promising to “eliminate jaativaad (casteism), sampradayvaad (communalism) and vanshvaad (dynastic politics)” from Gujarat, as also bigger allocations for programmes and agencies for the welfare of different castes and communities. Promising to build a “grand memorial” on the life of Sardar Vallabbhai Patel at Karamsad, the manifesto states that it will double farmers’ income by providing interest-free loans, value-addition of agricultural products and mechanisation of agriculture, among other measures.
The document also said it will strictly enforce the cow slaughter law in Gujarat, and take steps to preserve the Gir and Kankrej bovine species. It promises to make Gujarat free of “vector-borne disease” by 2022, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravishankar Prasad, who formally released the document, said the manifesto for the next five years presents a vision of “new Gujarat”, aligned to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a “new India”. Asked why the manifesto was released just a day before polls, Jaitley said, “I was here today.”
The manifesto promises that the state’s economy will continue to grow at 10 per cent every year if the BJP is reelected. Promising to end divides on the basis of caste, community and dynasty — the last an apparent dig at Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled elevation as Congress president — the party has said that it will double the provision for Thakor and Koli Development Corporation, aid to Dalit industrialists, setting up of a world-class Adivasi University and “Adivasi Kalyan Boards” in all districts of the state.
With Alpesh Thakor in the Congress and Dalit rights activist Jignesh Mevani lending support to the opposition party, and both seen as possibly taking away a chunk of votes from these communities to the Congress fold, this is seen as an attempt by the BJP to woo them. “Social polarisation will harm Gujarat politically, and if Congress continues to walk the same path it will harm Gujarat more, as they did in the 1980s,” Jaitley said, indicating the Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim (KHAM) social composition coalesced by the Congress under then CM Madhansinh Solanki to win multiple elections.
“Like in new India —where there is no space for casteism, no communal disharmony, and democracy has no room for dynasties — the BJP is committed to building a new Gujarat,” says the BJP manifesto, which has graduated from the slogan “Sauno Saath, Sauno Vikas (inclusive growth with collective efforts)” in 2012 to “Avirath Vikas, Adikham Vikas (continuous development, total development”. “The manifesto presents a vision of Gujarat’s development…. I do not want to say much because the performance speaks for itself,” said Jaitley referring to the report by the rating agency Crisil, which said that Gujarat topped the large states by recording an average growth rate of 10 per cent between 2013 and 2017. The socioeconomic review presented by the Gujarat government in the Assembly earlier this year stated that the Gross State Domestic Product at market constant prices grew at 10.9 per cent (2012-13), 7.6 per cent (2013-14), 7.8 per cent (2014-15) and 9.2 per cent (2015-16).
Jaitley said the 20-page manifesto — which carries a picture of PM Modi and pledge for “New India” — presented on the eve of first phase of Gujarat does not violate the provisions of the Election Commission’s model code of conduct as “photos of local party leaders, who are contesting elections, including Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel, have not been included in the manifesto. The revised version will be uploaded on the internet after 5 pm on Saturday. Some of the other promises are Metro rail projects in Surat and Vadodara, piped natural gas connection to every house, multilevel parking, regularisation of illegal settlements, aid for providing free higher education to girls, special fund for empowerment of women, special scholarship fund for poor students, special scheme for salt-pan workers, setting up for 252 mobile clinics and government diagnostic laboratories, water connection and toilets for every home, and pucca houses for the poor, labourers and nomadic tribes.
For the industrial sector, the party has promised a policy for semi-conductor and telecommunication industries, loans on low-interest rates for MSMEs, setting up a marine product laboratory for aiding exports, and hawking zones for vendors operating on carts. The saffron party also promises to set up a cell to help the Yatradham Vikas Board and Tourism Board coordinate with religious leaders. representation of saints from local “akhadas” on the board of Girnar Authority Board, and aid to local “akhadas” during Mahashivrati and Lili Parikrama.
