AAP manifesto
on Wednesday. “People should be allowed to choose their chief minister. The BJP is depriving people of this right. I challenge BJP to name a candidate by 1 pm tomorrow. I am ready to engage in a debate with their CM face,” he said. The AAP released a 28-point manifesto this year against a 70-point vision document in 2015. Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that these assurances were “over and above” those the party mentioned in its “guarantee card” released last month.
The guarantee card listed assurances such as one to continue the subsidies on power and water consumption, achieving a fleet size of 11,000 for Delhi buses, extending free bus rides for women to students, a “world class” education facility for every child, deploying marshals in local neighbourhoods to enhance security for women, accessible and affordable health care facilities, reducing pollution to at least onethird of current levels and a housing scheme for slum inhabitants.
“We are giving guarantees and not jumlas (false promises),” said Sisodia, taking a dig at the manifestos released by the BJP and the Congress on Friday and Sunday, respectively.
Several assurances mentioned in the AAP’S manifesto, by Kejriwal’s own admission, would require the Centre’s cooperation. They include pushing for the Jan Lokpal Bill, Swaraj Bill which seeks to decentralise decision making give the mantle to the people, statehood for Delhi, expansion of metro network and regularisation of unauthorised colonies.
These promises — along with few others such as making resettlement colonies freehold, fighting for justice for families of the victims of the 1984 anti-sikh riots and regularisation of sanitation workers hired on a contractual basis — were part of the party’s 2015 manifesto too.
Some of the assurances have been incorporated for the first time. They include round-theclock markets and commercial spaces, and a spoken English, personality development and soft skill module for students who have completed studies in any Delhi-based school in the past five years.
In its manifesto, the party also included some schemes which were already rolled out in the last few months — these include the “Deshbhakti” curriculum, which is aimed at imparting knowledge about freedom fighters and patriotism, which was officially launched by Sisodia in September 2019, and the doorstep ration delivery scheme, a pilot project which is already operational in two assembly constituencies.
Praveen Rai, a political analyst with the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, called the AAP’S manifesto focused and pragmatic. “It is a populist and citizen-centric manifesto. It has a mix of fresh ideas plus works that are in progress. It should be read with the party’s guarantee card which clearly states that subsidies as well as quality work in the areas of education, health care, power and water, among others, will continue. The chief minister himself had been honest about seeking time for some of the unkept promises. Hence, it is focused and pragmatic,” he said.
The BJP and the Congress were critical of the AAP’S manifesto.
“The AAP manifesto is a bundle of lies. It is a copy of the previous one, of which many promises remain unfulfilled,” said BJP’S Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari. Union minister Harsh Vardhan said, “Kejriwal talks about patriotic lessons but he has been spoiling the atmosphere of Delhi by standing in support of those who have been trying to split the country.”
The Congress called the AAP’S manifesto “a bundle of hollow promises”. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhash Chopra said the AAP had repeated virtually the same set of lies it could not deliver in the past five years. “What has prevented him (Kejriwal) from implementing the Jan Lokpal in his second innings when AAP had an absolute majority in the House. The AAP did not press for the Jan Lokpal because it feared that its own MLAS and ministers would be the first casualty to face charges of corruption, forgery and moral turpitude,” Chopra said.