Doles vs Development: The manifestos of BJP and Congress are for 2 different Indias

The BJP in its manifesto has promised to do more of the same it has done in the last decade-with focus on infrastructure creation, making India a product nation

The BJP, through its manifesto, has pretty much announced that it is sure of coming to power. No freebies or grand plans announced. While the Congress party has gone all out in offering reservations, wealth redistribution and so on.

Manifestos express the intent of political parties, a charter they present to the people with the promise of implementing some of that -if not all. With  polling set to begin on April 19th, the two big political parties -the BJP and Congress have presented two different narratives of India through their manifestos. The manifestos put forth a vision of two different Indias- one is of a nation relying on reservations and cash transfers for development; the other is of  a country betting on manufacturing and infrastructure creation.

The BJP, in its manifesto, has promised to do more of the same things it has done in the last decade, with a focus on infrastructure creation, making India a product nation, increasing MSP for farmers, extending Ayushman Bharat to senior citizens over 70 years of age; while the Congress party has a mix of promises -some forward looking such as increasing spending on healthcare, while others bordering on the return of the policies that had shaped India in the seventies. The party is promising to increase caste-based reservations with the leader of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, also promising wealth redistribution.

Also read: BJP Election Manifesto 2024 key highlights: Top poll promises made by party in 'Sankalp Patra'

A tale of two manifestos

The BJP manifesto has broadly ticked the same policy boxes it has been implementing in the last decade. There is focus on inflation control, macro stability, fiscal prudence, push towards manufacturing, infrastructure creation and so on.

While the Congress party has promised a reset in the economic policy, with a promise to provide Rs 1 lakh annually in cash transfers to the poor, new employment-linked incentive scheme for corporates to encourage additional hiring , a nationwide Socio-Economic and Caste Census and promise of affirmative action based on that data, raising the 50 percent cap on reservations for the SC, ST and OBC sections, enhancing of institutional credit to SCs and STs, increasing of health expenditure, a legal guarantee to MSP, increasing of wages under MGNREGA, launching an urban employment guarantee programme, de-criminalising defamation, a law to curb monopolies in media, cross-ownership of different segments of the media and control of the media by business organisations.

Congress has said it will refer cases of suspected monopolies to the Competition Commission of India. All media houses, irrespective of the size, will be required to disclose their ownership structures (direct and indirect), cross holdings, revenue streams, etc. through their websites.

Also read: BJP's manifesto prompts market participants to assess stocks on the watch list

What do the manifestos imply?

Citi, a multinational investment bank,  in a research note explains that the BJP manifesto is more titled towards “Continuity” rather than “Change” as the party might be confident on its 10 years' performance track record which is expected to propel India into being the third largest economy in the next five years.  There is a strong commitment in the manifesto to continue with the infrastructure push but there are no specific numerical targets mentioned. Citi has identified projects like 3 new high-speed bullet train corridors and 3 types of Vande Bharat trains, expanding of the metro network beyond the current 20 plus cities, extending redevelopment of 1,300 plus stations to all major and medium stations , transforming airports into multi-modal hubs , expanding high speed internet connectivity under Bharat Net to all villages from about 2,00,000 now, wider adoption of 5G and leading on 6 G development, extending piped gas connections beyond 11 million consumers in major cities.