New Delhi, Apr 8 (IANS): Congress party, facing a barrage of onslaught over its manifesto and its alleged connection with the Muslim League, came out in strong defence on Monday.
The party said that its ‘Nyay Patra’ is a blueprint and comprehensive vision for the future of the country. It also took umbrage over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks that the Congress manifesto has the stamp of the Muslim League.
Addressing a press conference in the capital, the party’s social media-in-charge Supriya Shrinate said that the Congress manifesto has caught the imagination of the country and it has also started a debate among the public about ‘correcting the wrongs of the past 10 years.’
She also accused the BJP of diverting attention from Congress poll promises by making baseless claims.
Training guns at the Prime Minister for the Muslim League taunt, Shrinate said that the party’s manifesto has “created panic in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and PM Modi is hassled and scared because of this.”
“Party manifesto has the imprint of youth, women, farmers and workers. It embodies the hope for the future,” she further said citing poll promises like Mahalaxmi Yojana and apprenticeship for unemployed youths.
She further accused the Prime Minister of instigating and resorting to the Hindu-Muslim divide during elections, despite being in power for ten years.
“After being in power for 10 years, when the country is at the brink of elections and the Prime Minister has to show his report card and ask for votes, he is nervous. He has once again resorted to the same clichéd Hindu-Muslim script,” the Congress spokesperson said.
Notably, the Prime Minister was apparently the first BJP leader to take on Congress over its poll pledges in its ‘Nyay Patra’ and said that it looked more like an ‘appeasement letter’ than a ‘poll manifesto’ while also claiming that it had the imprints of Muslim League and to some extent, Left ideology.
Congress Spokesperson further said that the party’s manifesto will set the stage for social justice and also for ‘undoing the wrongs and misdeeds’ of the past 10 years.
“Congress manifesto is the voice of India based on 5 pillars of justice. It has an indelible imprint on the people of the country, it has the imprint of the expectations, aspirations and challenges of the crores of people who met us during the Connect Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. It has the imprint of 10 years of broken spirits and the emergence of a new hope, she said.
“This Nyay Patra has solutions to every problem that has arisen in the last 10 years - like unemployment, inflation, economic inequality, crimes against women, the plight of the farmers,” she said while adding the BJP was getting nervous and panicky over its dwindling numbers, which stood at about 180 seats in latest surveys.