Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge termed Modi guarantees, the promises made in the BJP manifesto for Lok Sabha elections 2024 in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a bundle of vague promises without any clarity on their implementation.
He also questioned why the BJP-led government at the Centre hasn’t implemented Mr. Modi’s tall promises given during the last two Lok Sabha elections.
“In the previous elections also, Mr. Modi had given many guarantees such as bringing back black money and distributing it among the citizens of India, generating two crore jobs a year to employ the unemployed youth of the country, doubling farm income by 2022, ensuring Acche Din for the people and bringing down the prices of essential commodities. He could fulfil none of them. He has now come up with new promises and called them Modi’s guarantee,” Mr. Kharge said at a press conference at his party office in Kalaburagi on Monday.
“They are just grand slogans to mislead the people and not meant for implementation, just as the ones he had given during the previous elections. Mr. Modi’s guarantees don’t have any warranty. But Congress guarantees have a full warranty. As we have already seen in Karnataka, we have delivered what we promised during the last Assembly elections. We will, if we were to come to power at the Centre, deliver what we have promised during this Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Mr. Kharge said that the BJP manifesto is simply a photo album of the Prime Minister’s visits to different places.
“The BJP manifesto is the album of Mr. Modi’s picnic photos. It doesn’t have any solutions to the issues being faced by the country such as unemployment and poverty. There are 30 lakh vacancies in various departments of the Union government and the BJP manifesto doesn’t make any promises to fill them. The Modi government had promised to train 40 crore youth under Skill India Mission and make them employable in different sectors of the economy. However, it could train only 1.40 crore youth by December 2023. Of the 1.40 crore trained youth, 83% remained unemployed. 92% of Skill Development Centres have closed between 2015 and 2022. As per International Labour Organisation’s report, 83% of India’s youth are unemployed. BJP manifesto is silent on these issues,” Mr. Kharge said.
Taking serious exception to the former Chief Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D Kumaraswamy for his remarks on rural women who have benefited by the Congress guarantees in the State, Mr. Kharge said that the remarks exposed Mr. Kumaraswamy’s anti-women mindset.
“What does he mean when he says women in rural areas have lost their way after receiving benefits of Congress guarantees? Shouldn’t women come out of their houses and participate in public affairs? Shouldn’t they stand on an equal footing with men in society? Mr. Kumaraswamy’s words exposes his mindset and his party’s approach towards women,” he said.
