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The Congress Manifesto – How Credible Is It?

Author:
Publication: The True Picture.in
Date: April 27, 2018
URL:      https://www.thetruepicture.in/the-congress-manifesto-how-credible-is-it/

With Karnataka election nearing, political parties have begun their elections campaigns in full swing. The Congress party has come out with its election manifesto.

Here we do a short analysis of the promises and claims made in the election manifesto.

Far-fetched promise of contribution of USD 300 billion from IT sector

The manifesto says it will “Make IT as an important driver of the state economy by increasing IT contribution from current USD 60 billion to USD 300 billion”.
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karnataka's total GDP: around USD 190 billion

Congress Manifesto promise: contribution of USD 300 billion from IT sector in the next five years

Is it possible?
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This looks far-fetched because:

- Currently, Karnataka’s total GDP is estimated to be around USD 190 billion. And Congress says it will make IT contribute USD 300 billion to the state!

- So, is the Congress claiming that, in 5 years, they will make the IT industry so big that just the contribution of the IT industry alone will exceed Karnataka’s current GDP?

Unsubstantiated claim of 50 billion Biotech contribution

The manifesto promises to “Contribute biotech products, processes and services to the bio economy worth Rs. 3.25 trillion (USD 50 billion) which has risen from Rs. 0.42 trillion (USD 6.5 billion) in 2015”. Yet again, this looks extravagant:

Here are a few points to ponder about this promise:

- India’s biotech industry was worth USD 7 billion in FY2015 and is projected to reach USD 11.6 billion in FY2017, according to India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF).

- The Congress claims that Karnataka’s biotech sector alone contributed USD 6.5 billion in 2015, when the whole of India’s biotech industry itself is worth around USD 7 billion.

- Congress is trying to say that it will make the biotech industry contribute USD 50 billion just in Karnataka, mind you. It doesn’t mention the tenure, is it five years or ten years?

- Considering this is a manifesto for next five years, and the size of biotech industry of the entire country is around USD 11.6 billion as of now, is it possible for Karnataka’s biotech industry alone to contribute USD 50 billion? How does it plan to generate such an amount?

Congress hypocrisy on Job creation

The following snippet is from the manifesto, which
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The INC government in Karnataka in the last five years has presided over  the creation over 50 Lakh 'obs across different sectors, we have not only adopted policies to make people better job seekers (by training and up-skilling them) but also job producers by encouraging and supporting their entrepreneurship.

For the next five years we want to "Double It" - ie create 15-20 Lakh jobs every year, to achieve the creation of 1 Crore jobs at the end of five years.
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The claim has been made that 50 lakh jobs were created in the last five years. Now here is a report from November 2017, where Large and Medium Industries Minister for Karnataka R.V. Deshpande said that around 14 lakh jobs were created in the last four years.:
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14 LAKH JOBS CREATED IN KARNATAKA IN FOUR YEARS: MINISTER
Thursday. 23 November 2017

Karnataka has created about 13.91 lakh jobs in the last four years and is close to achieving the state government's target of generating 15 lakh jobs by 2019. state Large and Medium Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande said on Thursday.

"In the past four years. Karnataka has generated about 12.03 lakh jobs in the micro, small and medium enterprises sector and about 1.88 lakh jobs in the large industries sector. Another 5.79 lakh jobs are in the pipeline: he said at the Vendor Development and Investors Summit 2017 being held here.
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If only 14 lakh jobs were created in the state in the last four years, then how come more the total figure reached to 50 lakh jobs in last five years?

Moreover, at the national level, the Congress keeps claiming no jobs have been created. Their own state government is claiming 50 lakh jobs were created in the past 5 years.

So, either Rahul Gandhi is lying at national level or state level manifesto is.

Providing jobs to martyr’s families: Claiming someone else’s achievement as theirs

One of the key achievements mentioned in the manifesto is: “Provided Government jobs to one dependent of the soldiers from Karnataka who were martyred”.

The above claim of providing job to martyr’s dependent falls flat when we examine the case of Siachen martyr Hanumanthappa Koppad’s wife plight. Even after one year of his death, the Congress government did not fulfil the promise of providing a job to his widow. Finally, Union Minister Smriti Irani offered her a job. Media report snapshots below:
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The Karnataka government had promised a memorial for the martyr at his home town but a year on, the memorial is still stuck in red-tapism. Officials from the Karnataka chief minister's office said that the funds for the memorial has been been released but estimate that the inauguration of the same is unlikely to happen before two long months. The memorial was supposed to mark his death anniversary. His final resting place awaits the memorial.

The soldier was awarded a service medal posthumously on Januray 26, 2017 that his widow received. What she didn't receive was the government job that was promised. However, the
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Smriti Irani’s offer:
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Smriti Irani Sends Job Offer Letter To Siachen Braveheart Hanumanthappa's Wife
Swarajya Staff - Mar 08 2017, 6:05 pm
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Confusing skills with cooking gas

Skilling and Employment: Mobilising Skills for Accelerated Progress

INC will create a conducive environment to provide internationally acceptable skills to enable decent employment and sustainable livelihood opportunities for all citizens, and thereby reap optimum demographic dividend.

Our Key Achievements

• Provided Government jobs to one dependent of the soldiers from Karnataka who were martyred or disabled in war or war like situations
• Steps taken to provide cooking gas connection free of cost to poor households
• Created a Skill Ministry
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In an attempt to make the list of achievements in the ‘Skilling and Employment’ section a tad bit longer, the Congress manifesto lists provision of cooking gas connection free of cost to poor households as their key achievement in the sector.

It seems like a feeble attempt by the Congress state government to lay grounds to claim credit for a successful Central government scheme, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Scheme.

However, the odd placement of such a claim in the Skilling and Employment section indicates a ham-handed approach of the Congress to the manifesto exercise or its lack of understanding as to what constitutes as “skill”.

Congress still planning a strategy on skill development

The Congress Karnataka manifesto lays down its government’s plan to scale up skill development in the state, while mentioning Karnataka’s demographic dividend. However, the document lists down developing a strategy for skill development and employment as an exercise they plan to conduct in the next five years.

Their lack of any planning is indicative of the priorities of the Karnataka government in dealing with the requirements of state’s demographic dividend.
Nothing on children except a mention

Though the document mentions Children as a separate group, it does not lay down any steps the Karnataka government has taken for child welfare and security. The document, even for their next five year plans, has pretty much abandoned children and left them with mere rhetoric:

We are devoted to ensure that every child in Karnataka lives with dignity in an environment that is free from discrimination and violence. The rights of every child to survival, development, protection, and participation
throughout childhood will be protected and fulfilled by the INC Government.

Appeasement politics?

The Congress manifesto promises to provide insurance scheme to cover the health and children’s education of minority Auto and Taxi drivers. Poor auto and taxi drivers from majority religion, however, have not been addressed.

One wonders how such blatant pandering to the religious minority is considered a principled strategy by the Congress party in the election. Are drivers from non-minority communities not deserving of support?

Promises do not measure upto past performance
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Pollution Control
• Stringent action will be taken on industries/ firms violating pollution norms
• Increase share of public transport from 55% to 80%
• Public transport buses and vehicles will be converted to CNG • Scrapping of old vehicles
• Encourage afforestation programmes and planting of trees in vacant government and private parcel of lands
• Massive programmes to prevent flow of sewerage into water bodies
• Steps to penalise industries and monitoring authorities for violation of rules.
• Curbs on registration of new vehicles
• Will ensure separate Municipal Law to govern the growth of Bangalore Metropolitan Corporation
• We will formulate policy to protect all the playgrounds in Bengaluru from encroachments and to bring in a legislation against encroachments and retake encroachments.
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The long list of rhetoric to tackle pollution in the state does not look promising when one takes into account the blazing fire in the Bellandur Lake, the largest lake in the Bangalore city, as recent as on January 19, 2018.  The following report from National Geographic gives a glimpse of the gravity of the situation:

The January 19 blaze burned for more than 30 hours and rained down ash on balconies and cars more than six miles away. Less than two weeks later, the lake caught fire again. Bellandur Lake made international headlines last February when videos of a fire went viral. But there have been major fires
going back to 2015.

Another searing image of the 900-acre lake is a snow-white foam that often covers its canals. It has even bubbled up to a height of several stories and toppled onto roads and buildings nearby.

Similarly, the Congress manifesto promises making Bengaluru safest city in the country. This again seems like an empty claim considering, Bengaluru has the distinction of being second in total IPC crimes as well as has the highest number of crimes against women registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act, with a total 727 cases (NCRB 2016).

Track record in women empowerment

The other sections of the Congress manifesto lists some significant achievements, but in the section for ‘Women Empowerment and Child Development’, the Karnataka government has only following two vague claims to make, devoid of data or concrete steps:

- State Government formulated policies and programs for the welfare of women and child development, to ensure protection of women and children.

- The Government has Introduced Karnataka Mahila Abhivrudhi Yojane scheme for the empowerment of women.

However, they do provide a long list of what they plan to do in the next five years to if they come to power again.

We must compliment the Congress for finally moving away from the dreary affair that a Congress manifesto used to be. This manifesto, has some colours and data, although it is tacky and could have been done better.
 
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