BJP working on MODIfied manifesto, Cong furious

New Delhi : The BJP’s manifesto is delayed as it is being modified as per the wish of its PM candidate Narendra Modi, who reportedly asked its drafting committee chairman Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi to slash the bulky document by cutting out the scholarly nuances and background history of issues to make it a handy small enumeration of the doable poll promises.

“We shall be still able to bring out the manifesto by this weekend as it cannot be delayed much in view of the first phase of polling all set on Monday,” a BJP leader re-drafting it on behalf of Dr Joshi said.

The party may come out with a charge-sheet against the UPA government to coincide with the manifesto, illustrating its culpability in the key sectors like defence and internal security and how the country’s economy has been destroyed in the last 10 years. This will also eliminate its repetition in the manifesto, the party sources said. The charge-sheet has been prepared by a committee headed by chief media coordinator Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is also deputy leader of BJP in the Rajya Sabha and set to become its leader in view of present leader Arun Jaitley trying to get into the Lok Sabha from Amritsar.

The party sources said Modi has also shot down the Vision Document prepared by a panel headed by Nitin Gadkari as too bulky. Instead of the party adopting it and releasing it around the release of the manifesto, it will rather go up on the BJP’s website for public debate. Modi felt the vision document may not go down well with the voters as it has many proposals that may need a lot of explanation to convince the people for their acceptance.

Since it is a vision for the next 20 years and not for what the BJP plans to do if elected to power, better if it is released for debate and not endorsed by the party immediately, Modi reportedly told BJP president Rajnath Singh.

Gadkari has set a vision of the ambitious target of over 12% annual growth for the country by pursuing “a more vigorous market-centric economic reforms” and breaking the inter-state economic barriers to create a national market. Many reforms envisaged by him may not be palatable to the common man, Modi argued.

Employment generation has been placed on the top of the BJP”s manifesto, promising to launch massive skill development and vocational training and speedy employment. Also promised will be the cheap education loans to students to attract some 12 crore youth who will be voting for the first time in this election.

The party sources said use of Internet for providing cheaper and quality education in urban and rural areas has been included at the instance of the techno-savvy Modi.  The manifesto may also promise that a new ministry will be set up for promoting new ideas, innovation, research and development that facilitates job generation. It may also propose a separate institutional mechanism or ministry for retail traders while rejecting the FDI in the multi-brand retail sector.