Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday dismissed the Congress manifesto as an attempt to whitewash the failings of the party when it was in power for over 50 years and said the document called ‘nyay patra’ (document for justice) is an effort to hide the ‘anyay’ (injustice) against the people of the country.
Addressing the media, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “The Congress manifesto is a bundle of lies… It has been prepared to create confusion among the voters. The party which ruled the country for 50-55 years is now talking about ‘nyay’, but what did the government do when they were in power?”
He said the promises made by the Congress, which was “the main opposition party” and is known as “the grand old party” indicate it is moving from being old to oldest to oblivion. “They are saying today that if they come to power, they will do this and that…” he said.
The BJP leader said on the one hand there is the BJP, which has a “proven record” of fulfilling promises and on the other, there is the Congress, which has not been able to deliver on the promises made ahead of general elections or assembly polls.
“There is a jancha, parkha neta (tried and tested leader), there is Modi ki Guarantee, which is bharose ki guarantee (guarantee of trust) and there is the NDA coalition that is promising sushasan (good governance) and the UPA which is a divided house with leaders working for personal interests,” he said.
Trivedi took pot shots at the Congress and said the party couldn’t even come up with a picture of Indian river for its manifesto.
“There is a picture on water management in the Congress manifesto…which is of the Buffalo River in New York. They have not been able to find out who was tweeting from their social media chairperson (Supriya Shrinate’s) X handle. Who sent them this picture? Under the environment section, there is a picture from Rahul Gandhi’s favoured destination, Thailand…Who is putting all this in their manifesto?” he said.
Trivedi also slammed the Congress for its flip-flop on the Citizenship Amendment Act. He said when the Congress was in power, the Union home ministry had set up a committee under the chairmanship of Pranab Mukherjee and had leaders including Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, Lalu Prasad Yadav, which had considered an amendment to the Citizenship Act to give minorities from Bangladesh and Pakistan citizenship rights.
Taking a swipe at the opposition for raising questions on the efficacy of electronic voting machines, he said, “The machine worked fine when results came in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab (where the BJP lost) but is defective in Uttar Pradesh (where the BJP won).”
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also criticised the manifesto. In a post on ‘X’ he said, “Cong manifesto promises to remove an elected State Govt, restore triple talaq, makes a U turn on OPS, has no delivery date on any of its promises, lacks a plan to harness benefits of Industry 4.0 and worst of all passes pictures from Thailand & America as that of India.”
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