Just clever use of words
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 08, 2014 -

If the election manifesto of the ruling Indian National Congress (INC) for the 16th Lok Sabha election, 2014 which was released on March 26 last was all about repackaging of the failed promises of 2009 with clever rephrasing of words, that of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has turned to be even more clever use of the words, not in what it says but in how it says.

After weeks of delay, the much awaited election manifesto of BJP was released on April 7; the day polling for the 16th Lok Sabha began from the Northeastern States of Tripura and Assam.

Apart from giving no chance to the voters in the six Parliamentary Constituencies of the two Northeastern States to study the election manifesto of the party before they went to cast their ballots, the wait has turned out to be not much of a worth for anyone who expect some radical agendas for reforms that could come as a better alternative to what the Congress has promised.

The saffron party has only taken extra care in toning down its right-wing ideologies at every step, thus, over clouding its own stand on many issues.

It is interesting to note that for every reference to its pet issue like Ram Mandir, Cow Protection, Article 370 and the Uniform Civil Code that could confirm the saffron party’s commitment to a Hindutva agenda, there are counter-balancing statements tagging not far behind with clever use of words like modernisation of Madrassa, preservation and promotion of Urdu language and empowerment of Wakf boards, etc.

Thus, the election manifesto of BJP has been rightly termed as the reflection of the tension between its relatively liberal modernising impulses and the party’s archly conservative ideological core.

In its effort to reconcile the conflict between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, which of course would never be an easy task to achieve if even it comes to power with clear majority after the 16th Lok Sabha election, the saffron party has cleverly skirted itself from any outright talk on removing the subsidies (in fact, the word ‘subsidy’ has not figured in the bulky election manifesto of BJP at all).

There is also no talk on public sector disinvestment or privatisation and no serious mention has been made on overhauling the labour laws to promote job creation.

Moreover, the saffron party has given enough indication that it would not overturn the Food Security Act and the Land Acquisition Bill of the Congress party, despite being very critical of these Acts and Bills all along.

On the other hand, although the saffron party, whose ‘Lotus’ is yet to be bloomed fully in the region, has made some big promises to the people of Northeast, like empowering the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), enhancing better connectivity, massive infrastructural development, dealing with insurgent groups with a firm hand, addressing the issue of infiltration and illegal immigrants on priority basis, taking up measures for the safety of North-Eastern students studying across the country, etc, etc, thus, giving the impression that it is one of the few National political parties that talks of integrating the neglected region with the rest of the country, it has woefully fallen short in spelling out how all these are to be achieved. So sad.