LIVE Cong manifesto: BJP says document an insult to nation

3:05 pm: Jairam Ramesh defends manifesto, says it lists empowerment measures Jairam Ramesh turned up on CNN-IBN to defend the Congress manifesto and said it was fundamentally a document to highlight how the UPA would consolidate the growth over the last decade. “The manifesto is about a further set of empowerment measures,” he tikd CNN-IBN.  He said the focus of the party would be on reviving growth in the nation and in turn it would be used to further empowerment measures. 3: 00 pm: BJP says Congress manifesto is an insult to people Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP has claimed that the manifesto released by the Congress isn’t a manifesto but a ‘dhokha-patr’ “This is an insult to the people of India,” he said. Prasad claimed that the manifesto contained various claims that were impossible to achieve, including 8 percent growth from the present 4 percent. “This from a Prime Minister who was once Finance Minister,” he said. The BJP claimed that the Congress had damaged employment opportunities across the country. 2:30 pm: What are the main words in the manifesto? Here’s a analysis of which words feature the most in the Congress manifesto today:  1.55 pm: India of BJP’s dreams has few people running the country: Rahul  Citing the economic situation as the reason for the poor showing of the Congress in recent months, Rahul Gandhi says the only way forward for the country is to take the poor along with the government’s plans for business. “If you try to construct a government focused only on the poor or only on business, you will not take India forward. Poor people are the future of India,” he says, adding that this human resource cannot thrive until they are brought into the circle of business. We will pump a trillion dollare into infrastructure, he says. “More money into highways, railways, a manufacturing backbone that will give millions jobs. But we are not going to forget that the human resources, the people who will  build this country, are in the villages, they are not rich, they are poor people.” 1.45 pm: Rahul Gandhi takes a question on Narendra Modi. “Modi may be an individual but represents a school of thought that is exclusionary, one of getting people to fight one another. That will cause harm to India. That school of thought will be fought by every Congressman,” says Rahul. To a question on the doubts over the much-hyped primaries, Rahul says the primaries are a simple step to demonstrate that candidate decisions can be successfully taken with the inputs of a large number of people. Fifteen candidates were selected by about 12,000 members of the party, he says. 1.40 pm: “Of course we will challenge Varanasi seat.” Sonia GAndhi says the Congress will definitely challenge the Varanasi seat from where the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate will contest. The party has not decided on the candidate yet, she added. “Why should we not (contest)?” On opinion polls, the Congress president says she admits she doesn’t have much faith in them, “because they have been proved wrong again and again”. 1.30 pm: Manmohan says Cong committed to anti-corruption mechanisms “The Congress government has done everything in its power to work out a institutional framework through which corruption will be a thing of the past,” says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

[ View the story “Congress Manifesto release” on Storify]

1.00 pm: Congress manifesto today Facing tough Lok Sabha elections, Congress is expected to fall back on its left-of-centre policies focusing on welfare measures and widening the ambit of rights-based legislations to include healthcare and employment in the party’s manifesto to be released on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_1447259” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party Vice President Rahul. PTI[/caption] The crux of the document to be released by party President Sonia Gandhi in the presence of a galaxy of leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi, who will also express a firm resolve to tackle corruption, an issue that has haunted UPA-II in the form of scams like 2G, coal and CWG. Uplift of 70 crore people falling between middle class and below poverty line, a promise to empower women and increase their representation in politics and strong affirmative action in the private sector could be the other highlights. Given the fact that government jobs are drying up in the post liberalisation period, the party’s poll document could lay special emphasis on job creation. Battling allegations of corruption and an aggressive opposition campaign on the issue, the manifesto is likely to announce specific measures to check the menace as well as to bring back black money stashed abroad. While the manifesto may lay emphasis in favour of high growth, the party will be insisting that benefits of a rising economy reach the last man. The party’s poll document will also factor in the issue of price rise and more particularly of the food basket and could advocate stringent measures to check blackmarketing and hoarding besides amending some rules in market regulation.