Comparison of manifestos – BJP and Congress

Continuing on the lines of due diligence, I picked up the manifestos of the two biggies of Indian politics – BJP and Congress. I am making the link available for all of you to download the pdf files:

BJP Manifesto – Click here

Congress Manifesto – Click here

This is required as the media reports only a handful of points that are likely to catch viewers’ attention. I would not debate the compulsions of the media to do so. I thought it is appropriate for me as a voter to go through the detailed manifesto and see what exactly are these 2 parties saying?

In its 21 page manifesto, the Congress team has spent up to 5 pages criticizing BJP and the third front – even blaming the third front as responsible for the electoral growth of BJP! A detailed look at the rest of the pages seems like the party wants to just continue what they have been doing in their last 52 years of rule (out of the 60 years of independence).

This is hardly inspiring and I do not think a drastic change can happen in our country with this kind of an approach.

We normally hear about the Hindutva ideology of BJP in the media in such a light that even as a devout Hindu, one would get put off by it. I wanted to find out what exactly this ideology is and what does it really mean?

The first 5 pages of the BJP manifesto precisely address that. I have to admit that it is quite inspiring – it is all about regaining the glorious India that we have only read about. I would strongly suggest that you read it yourself. The remaining 43 pages talk about every aspect of governance with a concrete approach plan – from environment to health, sports to science, farmers to urban populace, internal security to foreign relations, developing weaker sections and preserving cultural heritage.

I am not standing guarantee to whether they will be able to accomplish all this, but to me, the manifesto looks like a wish-list of every Indian. It seems like that this party has finally got a hang of the pulse of the nation.

Vote for good governance, Vote for change.