Dubai: India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its manifesto today, three days before the biggest democratic elections in the world start.
The party’s chief Amit Shah said that the party is going with 75 promises to celebrate 75 years of Indian independence and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi summed up the manifesto at the event, saying: “Nationalism is our inspiration, empowerment of weaker sections is our vision and good governance is our mantra.”
As soon as the manifesto, titled Sankalp Patra [resolution letter] was released, #BJPManifesto, #BJPSankalpPatr2019 and Sankalp Patra became the top trending topics on Twitter in India. However, #BJPJumlaManifesto was also one of the trends, which social media users used to question some of the promises that were being made.
While many journalists and politicians predictably tweeted about the manifesto, social media users, too, jumped in providing snippets of some of the promises and sharing their positive or negative reactions.
The positive
Tweep @swarnim_singh, summed up the key features of the manifesto in 10 points, in a series of tweets, highlighting the pledges that he found most notable including Uniform Civil Code and construction of the Ram Temple.
Tweep @TalkFactual wrote: “As expected satisfying BJP manifesto. National security & uniform civil code given priority in the sankalp patra. Key points like pension for 60+ shopkeepers, PM kisan for all farmers, pension for 60+ labours etc need to be conveyed on the ground.”
Another user, @vastalitech tweeted: “Uniform Civil Code should be natural to a ‘secular’ constitution and here we have been fighting for it for decades!”
Tweep @Kuneeba wrote: “Every vote counts to make India truly 1 nation, remove article 370, 35A & implement Uniform Civil Code #ModiFor2019.”
@indiantweeter summed up the manifesto, tweeting: “My takeaways from BJP manifesto - 100 lakh crore investment in infrastructure, housing for all till 2022, a govt constituted national trader’s body to look into demands of the trader community, Jal Shakti [Hydro power] mission to provide drinkable water to every household.”
Journalist @TheJaggi tweeted: “The good thing about BJP manifesto is that it has nothing that is a game-changer. It makes no unrealistic promises beyond what may be deliverable.”
The negative
Many social media users, however, pointed out that a uniform civil code has been a part of BJP’s poll promises for many years. Tweep @NihaMasih added: “Long term plans of Ram Mandir and Uniform Civil Code relegated to page 36 (out of 45 pages) #BJPManifesto”
Users also reacted to Amit Shah’s comment that the party would make India the third largest economy in the world.
Tweep @ashoswai noted: “India has been already the world’s third-largest economy in PPP [Purchasing Power Parity] terms when someone called Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister!”
Twitter user @IchbinUjjaini questioned why instead of providing a report card of the past five years, the party was releasing another set of promises. She tweeted: “Only two days before you have been able to collect a bunch of empty promises, congratulations. But people would also like to see your report card of 2014? Where is development? Now you are bunking on hyper nationalism to get votes. Your party failed every Indian miserably.”
Calling it a pack of lies, India’s Congress Party said that the manifesto did not mention demonetisation or job creation. However, many social media users questioned the Congress’s forever-promise of ‘ghareebi hatao’ [remove poverty] calling it the equivalent of the Ram Temple promise that the BJP has been making.
Tweep @SarcasticRofl wrote: “For #BJPManifesto Ram Mandir is Header & Uniform Civil Code is footer, keep repeating on every page, every year without fail since 1980.”
Accountability
Tweep @JaiveerShergill felt that the party had to address some of the issues that had affected the country under its rule: “Instead of launching a Manifesto ‘Sankalp Patr’ #BJP should issue an Apology Letter ‘Maafi Patr’ for their sins and misdeeds leading to 45-year-high unemployment, brutal death of economy, high security forces casualty, 44%+ rise in farmer suicides #BJPJumlaManifesto”
Another Twitter user @sanjukta commented on a long-standing criticism that people had that the Prime Minister had not held a press conference in India during his tenure. She tweeted: “So there is a stage in which Modi is sitting. In front of the stage there are rows and rows filled with media people. Here’s a crazy idea, why not ask some questions to Modi? #BJPJumlaManifesto #BJPManifesto.”
