New Delhi: A set of 25 guarantees or Nyay, comprising five promises each for the young, women, farmers, labourers and marginalised groups that are likely to form the core of the Congress’s 2024 Lok Sabha elections manifesto, received unanimous approval of the party’s working committee on Tuesday even as the body authorised party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to give the poll manifesto its final shape.
The 25 guarantees — which would be pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantees — include promises such as creating three million government jobs, ₹1 lakh for all poor households, right to apprenticeship and removing the 50% cap on reservation to provide more quotas after conducting a nationwide caste census.
In the CWC meeting on Tuesday, several leaders spoke about controlling hatred and new laws to the neutrality of Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and other probe agencies, said a senior CWC member.
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“Many leaders mentioned that the poll manifesto should contain provisions to stop caste and communal violence. They also maintained that protection of constitutional bodies should be an important part of the poll manifesto,” the member added.
After a 3.5 hour-long meeting, party general secretary KC Venugopal announced that CWC authorised Kharge to give “final shape” to the manifesto and announced that it would be released very soon. The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls begin on April 19.
P Chidamabaram, who heads the manifesto committee, gave a presentation on the document.
Later, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra both insisted that the translation of the manifesto in different languages should be done by political people as important issues such as the proposals on caste groups should not be translated merely literally, said another member.
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A total three million jobs will be given in the public sector, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said. “These jobs include vacancies in central government, public sector companies, anganwadi and asha workers, in banks and other areas,” he added.
The Congress also promised a right to apprenticeship, under which degree-holders will be given one year’s apprenticeship in government or private firms. “All those who would get apprenticeship, will get ₹1 lakh in a year,” said a senior leader, requesting anonymity.
The party also promised a legislation to ensure the highest standards of integrity and fairness in the conduct of public examinations and prevent paper leakages and pledged another legislation to ensure better working conditions and social security for young people employed in the gig economy and unorganised sector.
It said it will create a corpus of ₹5,000 crore for each district to promote startups for five years.
The party’s promises for women included ₹1 lakh per year for one woman in every poor family and 50% reservation for women in all new central government jobs.
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it said it will also double the Centre’s salary contribution for all asha, anganwadi and mid-day meal workers. There are 5.13 million sanctioned posts for such workers, according to reply by Union minister Smriti Irani to the Rajya Sabha in March 2023. The government spent ₹6.669 crore as salaries for anganwadi workers in FY22-23.
The Congress promised to appoint adhikar maitris — or women who are trained as a paralegal to ensure women rights — in all villages. The party announced that it would launch a scheme — Savitribai Phule Hostels — to double the number of hoStels for working women.
The manifesto is likely to promise a permanent commission to consider FARM? loan waivers from time to time. “Moving a step ahead from announcing loan waivers, we want to establish a permanent mechanism to consider loan waivers whenever the need arises,” said the second senior leader, requesting anonymity. The job of the commission would be to examine the situation and then give recommendations to the government. Accordingly. We’ll waive the farm loans as commercially viable,” he added.
The Congress said it will formulate a fresh import export policy for agriculture, giving paramount importance to the interests of the farmers. The party also promised to waive Goods and Services Tax (GST) on farming inputs to make farmers “GST-mukt.”
For workers, the Congress planned a “svaasthya adhikar” that would translate into a right to health law that will provide “universal health care including free essential diagnostics medicines, treatment, surgery and rehabilitative and palliative care”.
The Congress also promised to make the national minimum wage ₹400 per day, including that of MGNREGS workers.
“In different states, MGNREGS workers get different rates. We want to give universal payment to all MGNREGS workers,” said a third senior CWC member, requesting anonymity.
The Congress also promised a shehri rozgar Guarantee or MGNREGA-type job guarantee scheme for urban poor. The party is likely to announce a wider net of social security to give life insurance and accident insurance for unorganised workers.
Under Hissedari Nyay, the Congress promised a caste census to determine the actual population of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, and promised to remove the 50% cap on caste-based quotas through a constitutional amendment.
The party also pledged a special budget for SC and STs, and increase the SC, ST sub-plan equal to their share in population.
To woo tribals, the Congress promised to settle forest rights claims within one year and notify all habitats with large ST population as scheduled areas.
