Promises are made to break…

Dear Reader,

Our nation is at the threshold of fractured verdict; with none of the political formations seem to be bagging 270 plus magic number: A number require catapulting them to the coveted PM post. Yet they pledge to alleviate voters’ sorrows and pull them out from the life full of drudgery and hardships; to bring smiles to the billions of faces if people vote them to power in the 16^th Lok Sabha.

The granny of all the political parties under the sun, the Congress, promises to bail out voters from the spasm of economic burden by triggering 8 per cent growth and keeping this figure intact till the next 20 years. FDI, 10% growth in manufacturing sector and decimating unemployment through 10 crore jobs is their poll-mantra.

It also boasts of creating industrial corridors, introducing Goods and Services Tax within a year and a new Direct Tax Code Bill. It had promised that subsidies will be limited to the absolutely deserving, financial sector reforms and a new model of governance for cities.

The party also promises to tame the thorny financial issue of fiscal deficit but put the onus of combating inflation on the RBI. It promises foreign investment, 10% growth in the manufacturing sector.

If our voters bring them to power they pledge to earmark 3% of the GDP on health sector through their right to health agenda.

The party which is accused of policy paralysis will provide state-of-the-art mobile health care vans in every district (at least five in each district) and strengthen primary health care infrastructure. It will ensure universal coverage of routine immunisation after the successful anti-polio drive, a focussed intervention to improve the child sex ratio, improve competencies of services provided through the National Health Mission and create 60 lakh new jobs in the health sector.

Women, SCs and STs are a significant voting bloc none of our political parties afford to ignore. So keeping in tune with their earlier pledges this time too they repeated the same old rhetoric: Citizen’s Charter for women’s safety and security, fast-track courts with in-camera proceedings at regional levels and rapid conclusion of cases start “one-stop crisis centres” in all public hospitals for survivors of rape and domestic violence, ensure women are 25% of police force and provide land rights.

SCs and STs, as usual, promised reservation in education and employment for economically weaker sections, affirmative action in the private sector, easy credit and tax rebates for entrepreneurs, and skill development vouchers.

The party who led the coalition national government since past one decade and failed on several fronts once again swears to trigger radical changes in infrastructure and energy fronts by spending $1 trillion, or approximately ` 60,00,000 crore, to upgrade India’s infrastructure in 10 years and create a National Investment Facilitation with none other than the prime minister chairing the proposed agency.

Similarly the party penned a road map for lofty future for Indian republic in its elections manifesto through infrastructure modernization; promising high-speed rail connectivity to all million-plus cities, upgrade airports, and have dedicated freight corridors, to establish a clear policy for fair, transparent and time-bound development of natural resources, and setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle and a regulator to provide 90%  households with power, augmenting access to LPG and kerosene, increase It will cover all the thrust to renewable energy forms.

Besides this the party also vows to remove incongruities in our urban development, housing and environment sectors through landmark legislations.

The newest political outfit: the Aam Admi Party or popularly known through its acronym, AAP too charted out its promises to bring in its flagship janlokpal bill to cover everyone from the prime minister to the peon, a charter for time-bound delivery of services where officers will have to pay a penalty for delay.

The will employ technology to simplify procedures to reduce corruption. It would ensure MPs and MLAs disqualification those charged with violence against women.

The party wants to de-centralise the system and transfer power to the gram sabha in the village and mohalla sabha in the city. It will empower the gram sabha to decide most subjects such as the use and sale of land through proper legislation.

It promises to fortify mohalla sabhas to decide the agenda of work in its area.

The party wants reservation for the disadvantaged to continue but would limit them to socially and economically weaker sections. It would like to upgrade all government schools to the standard of good private schools and provide free higher education.

On Maoism, the party promises a comprehensive socio-economic approach and development of the marginalised communities. It promises to bring in legislation to reduce the eligibility to contest an election from 25 to 21 years.

The right wing BJP is banking on its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s 5 Ts: — talent, tradition, tourism, trade and technology. Like its bitter political adversary, AAP, its principal plank too is combating corruption and moots multi pronged strategy to eradicate it.

The party manifesto focuses on the economy, with measures aimed at creating jobs, promoting growth. Federalism, or the sharing of powers and resources between the Centre and the states are theanother focus area.

The party plans e-governance to minimise corruption at the lower levels of the bureaucracy, which deals the most with the public; a law to check malpractices in the private sector; and steps to bring back money stashed abroad illegally. There will resort to issuing floating warrants, which will bind countries under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, to divulge information.

The saffron party under Modi is hell bent on removing unemployment – a tactical move to target India’s 65% voters who are under the age of 35.

There are plans to introduce financial literacy and entrepreneurship modules in schools, to modify the curriculum in technical institutions, and programmes to train the trainers.

The party firmly believes to link education with jobs.

If comes to power, the party will revive the manufacturing sector and ease levies and taxes – a strategy to lure corporate.

The most important clause here is that the party would allow the private players into the defence production sector.

Fiscal reforms, rationalization and simplification of tax structures are on their wish-list too. Small and medium enterprises can also expect excise levy concessions. Stamp duty concessions likely. It plans to enforce accountability in revenue-collecting agencies and departments.

Disinvestment and transparency in allocation of non-renewable natural resources such as coal and oil are in their agenda too.

If the party comes to power it pledges to simplify the rules for land acquisition and use. It also vows to eliminate middlemen in agriculture sector. The rightist party will incentivize the private sector for setting up supply chain infrastructure.