New Delhi: A nation-wide Old Pension Scheme (OPS), statehood for Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry, implementation of the Sachar Committee’s suggestions and strengthening of the Delhi authorities are among the many guarantees — other than the 5 ‘Nyays’ — that the Congress get together is engaged on in its draft manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The up to date draft, excerpts of which have been accessed by ThePrint, has been despatched to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for its approval.
Some of the guarantees just like the OPS face reservations inside the get together, whereas others just like the statehood for J&Ok, if applied, can put the Congress on a sticky wicket.
Originally not part of the draft manifesto that was drawn up by a six-member Manifesto Committee led by P. Chidambaram, the OPS and statehood guarantees had been added after a dialogue on the assembly of the get together’s highest decision-making physique, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), held Tuesday.
The OPS was added after some members raised the demand, in keeping with a CWC member current on the assembly. It was finally Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who insisted that the promise of OPS be added, the CWC member stated.
In the previous, Congress leaders like Praveen Chakravarty have questioned the scheme’s effectiveness in electoral battles. Chakravarty, in an interview to ThePrint in December, referred to as the OPS “unjust” and “unfair” and deemed it a scheme which taxes a overwhelming majority for a small, privileged group.
While the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA authorities launched the New Pension Scheme (NPS) in 2004, Congress heavyweights Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram had beforehand lauded the brand new scheme. As the NPS was lauded up to now, Congress leaders really feel that it’s going to assault the get together’s personal legacy with out yielding many returns.
“The OPS had come up for discussion in the meetings of the Manifesto Committee, but it was not put in the draft manifesto prepared by the Committee. Mr. Chidambaram, for one, is really wary of it,” stated one other senior CWC member.
ThePrint reached out to Chidambaram for his response to the OPS probably being a manifesto promise, however he refused to remark.
The OPS has seen resistance from sections inside the Congress despite the fact that Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan — after they had been below the get together — had applied the scheme.
The Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka have applied the OPS, whereas it was a ballot promise for the Telangana election held in November final yr.
The electoral loss within the Hindi heartland of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, regardless of the OPS promise, might have been a sign that the difficulty doesn’t have a lot resonance amongst the citizens.
On the opposite hand, the demand for statehood of Jammu and Kashmir and particular standing for Ladakh was included after an intervention by former J&Ok Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir, who stated that it was a long-standing demand of the folks.
The unique draft had solely proposed statehood for Puducherry. The identical part additionally proposed particular standing for North Eastern states and Andhra Pradesh, and the revocation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The draft additionally speaks about an modification to the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCTD) Act, which was modified by the BJP in 2021 to provide extra powers to the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) versus the elected Delhi authorities.
In the draft manifesto, the get together proposes to amend the legislation in order that the L-G function as per the recommendation of the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers on all topics together with companies, besides the three reserved topics of public order, land, and police.
It additionally guarantees the implementation of the report ready by the Sachar Committee, a high-level panel of seven members constituted by the Manmohan Singh authorities in 2005 to check the social, financial, and academic situation of Muslims. The Committee had submitted its report in 2006.
The BJP has persistently attacked the Congress for forming the Committee, calling it as “Muslim appeasement”. Since the 2014 loss to the BJP, the Congress has tried to drop its tag of “appeaser”. The choice was taken after the get together’s survey analysing the loss talked about it as one of many key causes for the electoral defeat.
In response as to if the OPS and the Sachar Committee report might be part of the get together manifesto, Congress basic secretary (organisation) Ok.C. Venugopal skirted the query on Tuesday.
“Details of the manifesto you will get when it is released. All the points in the manifesto have been discussed. All the members participated in the discussion,” Venugopal stated at a press convention after the CWC assembly.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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