BJP manifesto promises ‘anti-radicalisation cell’, uniform civil code in Guj

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda on Saturday released the party’s “Sankalp Patra” for the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections, promising to create an anti-radicalisation cell to identify “any potential threats”, bringing in a Uniform Civil Code and making the state a $1-trillion economy, among other things.

Key among the BJP’s promises were jobs for two million unemployed youth, a schools of excellence project, doubling the annual cap under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat) from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh per family, and enacting the Gujarat Recovery of Damages of Public and Private Properties Act.

“We will create an anti-radicalisation cell to identify and eliminate potential threats, and sleeper cells of the terrorist organisations and anti-India forces,” Nadda said at the release of the manifesto. “We will also make a law pertaining to damages to public property. The law will be regarding the recovery from anti-social elements who damage the public property and attack private properties,” he said. According to the manifesto, the law will aim to recover damages incurred during riots, violent protests and social unrest.

He said that they will make the state’s economy reach $1 trillion by making it a destination for foreign direct investments.

“We will make Gujarat a $1-trillion economy by maintaining its pole position in manufacturing, focusing on services and investing in human and institutional capacity-building for newage industries. We will attract ₹5 lakh crore foreign investment and make Gujarat the Defence and Aviation Manufacturing Hub of India,” he said.

Nadda released the manifesto in the presence of Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel and BJP’s Gujarat incharge CR Patil.

“We always do what we say and it is our specialty that we also do what we have not said (in the manifesto). For instance, when did we say that we will build a greenfield airport at Rajkot but we have started work on it. When did we say that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) will come up in Jamnagar? But we have done it,” said Nadda at the event.

The BJP promised free-of-cost and quality education to all girls from kindergarten to postgraduation and added that it will provide free two-wheelers to the meritorious college-going girls. It has also promised free bus travel to women senior citizens and 100,000 government jobs to women over the next five years.

For the tribals in the state, the BJP has promised to enable mobile delivery of ration across all the 56 Tribal Sub Plan Talukas in the state and to ensure Rs 1 lakh crore under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana 2.0 for the all-round socio-economic development of tribals.

The BJP has promised to convert 20,000 government schools into Schools of Excellence in the next five years with a budget of ₹10,000 crore. The party will also launch a Gujarat Olympics Mission and create world-class sports infrastructure with an aim to host the Olympic Games in 2036, the manifesto said.

Reacting to the release of the manifesto, the Congress said it was a “Dhokha (deceit) Patra”. “The manifesto looks more like a state budget where thousands of crores are allocated for various schemes. After 27 years of rule, the BJP has to offer freebies to lure voters,” said Congress spokesperson Alok Sharma.