Modi's guarantees will meet same fate as BJP's 2004 India Shining push: Kharge

The Congress president was speaking at the Congress Working Committee meet at the Delhi HQ where the party is expected to release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls.

New Delhi: Asserting that India is "fervently demanding change”, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday attacked the ruling BJP's 'Modi guarantees’ stating it would meet the “same fate" as the saffron party’s ‘India Shining’ campaign in 2004 when Vajpayee sought re-election.

At a meeting of the Congress Working Committee here to finalise the party’s manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he urged all workers to take Congress’s message of ‘nyay’ (justice) to every single house in the country.

“The country is fervently demanding a change. The guarantees currently being touted by the present government would have the same fate as that of the ‘India Shining’ slogan of 2004,” Kharge told the meeting where the CWC discussed the draft manifesto prepared by a panel headed by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The BJP government under Vajpayee had headed into the 2004 Lok Sabha election with a high-voltage ‘India Shining’ campaign but it could not form a government and a coalition led by the Congress assumed power.

Instructing party workers and leaders not to get distracted, he said they should stay focused only on basic issues related to the public and will have to present Congress's views strongly on what the party's policy, programmes and priorities would be during the next five years.

The senior leaders will have to play the role of a motivator in taking all major issues across the country, from village to locality, and to every home, he said, adding the party's exercise to draft a manifesto involves the participation of the public rather than merely confining it to an academic exercise.

“Whatever has been promised in the manifesto, will be strictly implemented. Before making promises in the manifesto, in-depth deliberation has been made to ensure that these promises are implementable. It is because of this very fact that, right from 1926, Congress's manifesto has been regarded as a 'document of trust and commitment'. After independence, the Congress party’s first manifesto was released under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru which was famously called ‘What Congress Stands For’,” he said.

Kharge also referred to Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and said both addressed a number of public rallies in which they spoke of Congress guarantees and commitments under the five pillars of the yatra -- Kisan Nyay, Yuva Nyay, Naari Nyay, Shramik Nyay, and Hissedari nyay.

"Over the last two months, a total of 25 Guarantees -- five guarantees each for the five nyays were announced. Rahul-ji has done his maximum through the yatra as far as these guarantees are concerned. But in the coming days, we must spell out what our priorities, policies and programmes are going to be for the next five years," he said.