Ahead of the seven-phased Lok Sabha polls that kicks off on April 19, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released its much awaited manifesto (titled ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ Sankalp Patra) with a road map on realising “Viksit Bharat” (developed country status) by 2047; promise to launch ‘one nation, one election’ and a common electoral roll system and poll pledge with several measures targeted at youth, women, farmers and the poor.

Speaking at the launch event of the BJP Manifesto at the party’s headquarters in the capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the ambitions of the 140 crore people are his mission and implementation work on the BJP manifesto will start as soon as the election results are announced on June 4. He said that BJP’s top priority will be boosting social, physical and digital infrastructure of the country. 

 “The entire country waits for the BJP’s ‘Sankalp Patra’. There is a big reason behind it as in the last 10 years, the BJP has implemented every point of its manifesto as a guarantee on the ground. This ‘Sankalp Patra’ empowers all the four strong pillars of developed India- Youth, women, poor and farmers”. 

Bullet trains

Modi has also promised to introduce bullet train projects in North, South and East besides the ongoing Mumbai-Ahmedabad project. India will also take steps to bid for hosting the Olympics in 2036, he said. 

BJP will expand Vande Bharat trains to every corner of the country. As many as three models of Vande Bharat will run in the country - Vande Bharat Sleeper, Vande Bharat Chaircar and Vande Bharat Metro. “Today the work of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train is going on in full swing and is almost reaching completion. In the same way, one bullet train will run in North India, one bullet train in South India and one bullet train in Eastern India. Survey work for this will also be started soon,” Modi said.

Uniform Civil Code

BJP also intends to implement Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which is contemplated as a common set of laws for citizens governing personal matters such as inheritance, marriage, divorce and adoption, irrespective of religion, sex, gender or caste.

If introduced, laws such as the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Succession Act, the Christian Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act and other such codified laws will be repealed.

Ayushman scheme

Modi announced several new initiatives forming part of the ‘Sankalp Patra’ that would be rolled out as guarantee once voted into power. These include extending Ayushman Bharat scheme coverage to transgenders and senior citizens above 70 years, extending piped gas to every household, pledge to build three crore houses and cut down electricity bills to zero. The manifesto also promises to make three crore women Lakhpati Didis, up from the earlier aim of one crore women.

Modi said that the focus of the manifesto is dignity of life as well as quality of life. “Manifesto focuses on quantity of opportunity and also quality of opportunities”, he said. 

Modi also said that he wants to make India the global hub of all emerging sectors. India will be the hub of green energy, pharma, electronics, automobile, semiconductor, innovation, legal insurance, contracting and commercial, Modi claims.

Over the last two terms since assuming office in 2014, the Modi-led Government had fulfilled most of its core ideological promises made in its 2014 and 2019 manifestos including the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the withdrawal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

The theme of the latest manifesto is “Modi’s Guarantee: Developed India 2047,” with a focus on cultural nationalism.

PM Modi also said that BJP will in the next five years take India to be among the top three economies of the world. It will also launch a final and decisive assault against poverty besides intensifying battle against corruption.

PM Modi also said that BJP would look to make Bharat the global hub for High-Value Services by establishing more Global Capability Centres (GCCs), Global Tech Centres (GTCs) and Global Engineering Centres (GECs).

Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior leaders of the BJP party including Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and BJP President J P Nadda attended the unveiling of the manifesto at the party headquarters. 

The event was also attended by senior Cabinet Ministers including External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar and Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal. 

This manifesto launch event coincided with the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, an architect of the Indian Constitution.

Policies and schemes

The PM Suraj Portal will offer accessible credit facilities to eligible individuals to support their livelihood. The BJP’s manifesto includes establishing an Anusandhan Fund with a ₹1 lakh crore investment to promote scientific research. The Mudra scheme’s loan cap is also set to increase to ₹20 lakh.

BJP has also promised free ration for the next five years. It will also encourage small traders and MSMEs to adopt ONDC and expand their business using technology.

The BJP had received over 1.5 million suggestions for its manifesto, including more than 4,00,000 through the NaMo app and over 1.1 million through videos.

Earlier promises

Speaking at the manifesto launch event, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Chairman of the 27-member Manifesto Committee, said that the BJP has fulfilled most of the promises made in 2019. He said that the party got suggestions from three sources —Rath, Organisations and Online. 

The BJP manifesto is divided into 24 groups and every promise carries Modi ki guarantee that is equivalent to 24-carat gold standard, he said.

“I don’t hesitate to say that the BJP manifesto is the gold standard for the political parties in not only India but across the world”, Singh said.

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