BJP manifesto: Lots of promises, some details, but falls short on Modi's vision

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) manifesto finally saw the light of day. Apparently the delay was because prime-minister-in-waiting Narendra Modi was giving it his own touches.

So is this a Modi-festo or just another please-all election manifesto? At first glance, it certainly seems to be more of the latter. There’s very little that gives concrete shape to Modi’s ‘minimum government maximum governance’ catchphrase that fired the imagination of the youth (though it does mention another Modi-ism - ‘people-public-private-partnership’).

On the contrary, the manifesto continues to genuflect to the tired old approach of delivering a primarily public sector-delivered welfare. It even talks about strengthening the public sector to do this. And, horrors, there is even mention of an urban poverty alleviation scheme as a key thrust area. Poverty alleviation schemes are known to alleviate nothing more than under-employment of government babus. The manifesto certainly doesn’t set out the vision that Modi outlined in his speech at the national council Talkatora stadium last year.

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Overall, though the manifesto certainly has a reformist feel to it and it certainly does not shy away from spelling out how it plans to tackle today’s hot-button issues, especially inflation.

There is, of course, the token statement about cracking down on hoarders, but along with that the manifesto shows the party has a clear sense about how to tackle the root causes of food inflation. There’s a promise to unbundle the Food Corporation of India (FCI) on functional lines like procurement, storage and distribution for greater efficiency. A revamp of the hugely inefficient FCI is sorely needed and the agency’s failings are responsible for much of the problems of the food economy. Whoever in the BJP thought of including this in the manifesto needs to take a bow.

Another point that deserves applause is the promise to evolve a single National Agriculture Market and reform the state-level Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Acts. If this is done, it will become easier to keep food inflation under check. But getting the states on board - and the middlemen who constitute much of the BJP’s votebank - could turn out to be a hurdle. But that hurdle can be crossed later.

The Congress manifesto also highlighted the problem of inflation, but steered clear of mentioning specific measures, apart form strengthening the Food Security Act to ease the burden on the poor.

The correct focus on root causes comes out also in the section on addressing corruption. Sure, there is the yawn-inducing bit about increasing public awareness, but there is also mention of system-based, policy-driven governance, minimizing discretion, rationalising and simplifying the tax regime and simplifying processes and procedures at all levels. “By minimising the scope for corruption, we will ensure minimisation of the generation of black money,” the manifesto says. If it understands this basic fact, it can be forgiven for continuing to mouth meaningless statements like setting up task forces to bring back black money from abroad - as if generation of black money within the country is not a problem.

There’s the same reformist approach to reviving the economy. There is a clear focus on removing obstacles, creating an enabling environment, cutting red tape, creating single window systems. One would have liked details on how these will be done - especially many such matters are in the realm of the states - but this will have to do for now.

And finally, there’s the much welcome emphasis on all aspects of infrastructure (though it is silent on how much money it will put into this sector, in contrast to the Congress pledge of $1 trillion) and on giving regulators more autonomy.

And yet, one cannot help wishing the party had pushed itself a bit more. Could it not, for example, have spoken about cash transfers in the context of implementing the National Food Security Act?

While dwelling at length on education, could it not have outlined a roadmap for ending the licence raj in education and reforming the ill-conceived Right to Education Act, whose intentions may be noble but whose consequences have been disastrous?

And while one can appreciate that a party heading towards election cannot promise that it will make retrenchment of labour easier, did the manifesto really have to resort to sentimental hogwash like `Industry Family’, expecting management and workers to bond as a family, `guided by the principles of efficiency, skill development and upgradation, productivity, appropriate wages and perquisites, and security’ - whatever that means? Merely mentioning, purely in passing, that labour reforms will be carried out is not enough. It would have been good for the party to have dwelt on this topic in a rather less oblique manner than it has.

Also disappointing is the continued and inexplicable aversion to foreign direct investment in retail. The manifesto says it will allow FDI in all sectors except retail, when there is enough evidence that the threat of foreign retail is little more than a bogey. This discordant note was intensified when Sushma Swaraj, speaking during the manifesto release function, mocked the Congress manifesto for saying it has no aversion to foreign investment. The BJP, she said, did not want the economy to prosper on the crutches of foreign money; it wants to rely on Indian power. Such statements have little place in an otherwise liberal economic order that the manifesto seems to outline.

But one can perhaps take heart from what party president Rajnath Singh said: that the party will not limit itself to the promises made in the manifesto and that it would do whatever is required for comprehensive and integrated development. So the missing pieces could well be fitted into the picture later. Well, it’s time to wait and watch.

Seetha is a senior journalist and author