The 2019 manifesto was drafted around three key areas, unemployment, farmers' distress, and women security.
The Congress’s manifesto for the 2019 general elections, an exercise that was spread out over 24 states and three Union Territories roping in over 176 consultations, is in scope and character similar to the party’s 2014 manifesto. The 2019 manifesto was drafted around three key areas -- unemployment, farmers’ distress, and women security. The party’s minimum income guarantee offering, NYAY, was the prime offering. Yet, the party’s promise to create jobs was one of its key offerings in the 2014 manifesto. Then, the manifesto had a ‘15-point agenda for socio-economic and political transformation’, where the Congress promised to create 10 crore jobs by 2019.
This year, the party has pushed its promises under the ‘jobs’ category aggressively, and yet, remains conservative with the promises. There’s no specification of the total number of jobs it will create, but the party promises to fill up the existing 24 lakh vacancies in government jobs, of which 20 lakh are in state jobs and 10 lakh in central government. It also promises to create an additional 10 lakh Seva Mitra jobs in state governments, appoint a second ASHA worker in areas of more than 2,500 population, and create more jobs in MSME, tourism, construction, textiles, leather, gems and jewelry, entertainment, and retail businesses.
What remains common to both the 2014 and 2019 manifestoes of the Congress is the promise to increase health expenditure to 3% of GDP and provide universal and quality health care. Another such promise is to extend the Right to Education to ensure universal education up to the secondary level. For women, the party’s 2014 promise to enact the Women’s Reservation Bill to reserve 33% of Lok Sabha seats as well as assemblies seats in states for women, remains in 2019 manifesto. In 2014 the party promised to work with women’s Self-Help-Groups to distribute free sanitary napkins for adolescent girls, a promise that remains the same in spirit but with a small difference: vending machines.
These machines, the party states, will be installed in public spaces, schools, and colleges. In the 2014 manifesto, the Congress promised to bring in a Right to Pension, something that it is silent on in 2019. Instead, the party promises to introduce “well-designed pension and health insurance schemes” for senior citizens. Five years ago, the Congress party also promised to bring a Bill to set up a National Environmental Appraisal and Monitoring Authority, which is missing in the 2019 manifesto. Instead, this year, the party is promising to declare air pollution is a national public health emergency, bring in comprehensive land and water use policies and most importantly, increase the forest cover from the current level of 21% to 25% by the year 2025. What is important to note is that some of the party’s promises -- to implement Good and Services Tax, the One Stop Crisis Centre, and the increase the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings the 2014 ranking of 134 to 75 by 2019 -- have all been implemented by the BJP government since 2014.
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