In a pitch centered around national security, farmers and completion of 75 development milestones to commemorate India's 75th year of Independence in 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched BJP's election vision document for the Lok Sabha elections starting April 11.
The party though retained its core ideological promises of building a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, drafting a Uniform Civil Code and abrogation of Article 370, which has accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
BJP also promised to implement the National Register of Citizens in a phased manner in other parts of the country to tackle changes in "linguistic and cultural identities due to illegal immigration".
PM Modi stressed that while the manifesto was broadly for the 2019-2024 period, his government would focus on completion of 75 milestones by 2022, when the country will celebrate its 75th year of Independence. These milestones span agriculture, education, health, culture, infrastructure, railways, governance and economy.
"Though this manifesto is broadly for 2024, we want the people of the country to seek a record of our work in the interim. We have decided to set 75 definitive, time-bound milestones to be achieved by 2022," Modi said.
Reflecting on the broad contours of the vision document, Modi said,"Nationalism is our motivation, inclusion is our philosophy and governance is our mantra." The vision document was released at an elaborate event where president Amit Shah, and senior cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj were also present.
The vision document was prepared after reaching out to nearly 6 crore citizens across the country through direct contact programmes as well as social media, BJP's manifesto committee chief and Union minister Rajnath Singh said. "Through Bharat ke Mann ki Baat initiative we reached out for suggestions on the vision document. This is a vision document for the aspirations and expectations of 130 crore Indians," Singh said.
While most of its promises and commitments relied on sustaining its development push, the BJP announced that it would expand the PM Kisan income support scheme to cover all farmers. This announcement comes on the back of the Congress party's promise to give Rs 72,000 per annum as income support to poorest 20% of the country if voted to power.
Announced in this year's budget, the PM-Kisan scheme initially targeted only those farmers whose had land holdings up to 2.5 hectares. In addition, the BJP said it will provide interest-free farm credit up to Rs 1 lakh for 5 years with a condition of timely repayment of the principal amount.
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