Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the 2019 General Elections is a document for good governance, a manifesto for national security and for prosperity.
“Nationalism is our inspiration, antyodaya is our philosophy and good governance is our mantra,” the prime minister said during the release of the manifesto at the party’s headquarters. “Antyodaya” refers to Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s philosophy of “the rise of the downtrodden”.
Modi said there will also be an interim assessment of the government’s performance in 2022, and therefore the manifesto has set 75 goals for the 75th year of Indian independence. He said the Bharatiya Janata Party will try to fulfil the goals and aspirations of those who fought for India’s independence by 2022.
Modi said the party wants to move forward with “one mission, one direction”. The prime minister said the party’s manifesto is a “multi-layered and multi-dimensional” document that addresses the expectations and aspirations of all sections of the society. This is because India is a diverse society, with different languages and standards of living, he said. “A multidimensional approach is necessary to take the country forward,” he said.
The prime minister said the BJP wants to make India a developed country by 2047. “We want to fight poverty rather than sit inside air conditioned rooms,” he said. “Only the poor can solve the problem of poverty. For this, empowerment of the poor is necessary.”
“We first addressed needs of the people, now we will fulfil their aspirations,” he added.
Modi claimed that works that should have been completed in the 1950s or 1960s had to be finished during the 2014-2019 period. The prime minister said that like Mahatma Gandhi gave an impetus to the freedom struggle by making it a people’s movement, the struggle for progress has to become a national movement.
The prime minister thanked all media houses in the country, as well as the youth of India for their support to the Swacch Bharat mission.
Modi said the government has taken many steps to improve “good governance, easy governance, transparent governance, accountable governance” in the country. He said the growth of technology has helped in schemes like Jan Dhan and e-marketing.
The prime minister said water scarcity is a major problem in the country. He said the government will form a Jal Shakti Ministry if voted back to power.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said BJP chief Amit Shah set up a committee of 12 members under Singh to formulate a manifesto for the country. Singh claimed the manifesto has been prepared as a “vision document” of 130 crore Indians.
“This manifesto has been prepared with strong nationalist vision and it’s been after a detailed consultation by a committee headed by Rajnath Singh across the country,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. Jaitley said the manifesto is “rooted in Indian realities”, and has not been prepared with the “tukde tukde or Ivy League mindset”.
Jaitley claimed the National Democratic Alliance government has introduced a new national security doctrine, “which makes India one of the most powerful nations in the world where our deterrent is the best defence”. “We are the first government in history which consolidated India’s middle class and which brought out the fastest depletion of poverty,” he added.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that while other parties have unveiled an election manifesto, the BJP has released a “resolution document”. Swaraj claimed that the power and prestige of India around the world has improved more during Modi’s first term than during the term of any other prime minister.
The 2019 General Elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, and the results announced on May 23. The Congress had released its manifesto for the polls on April 2.
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