Congress to fight elections on '25 guarantees': Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI, March 19: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge today said India was on the cusp of change as the people across the country were fed up with the ten years of misrule and injustice of the Modi government.

He said the Congress was fully prepared to usher in that change.

Kharge was speaking at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting here today. It was attended by the Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh & Telangana, and other senior leaders and party functionaries.

In his opening remarks, Kharge said the country was fervently seeking a change. He predicted that the guarantees currently being doled out by the Modi government would meet the same fate as that of the “India Shining” slogan of 2004.

Referring to the 63 days long Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, he said, both he and Rahul Gandhi addressed several public rallies in which they promised guarantees and commitments which included Kisan Nyay (justice for farmers), Yuva Nyay (justice for youth), Naari Nyay (justice for women), Shramik Nyay (justice for workers) and Hissedari nyay (justice for rightful share). Every commitment to justice includes five further guarantees each.

Congratulating Rahul Gandhi for Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, he said, these were not just “political Yatras”, but the largest “mass contact movement in our political history”.

“One can’t ignore the fact that nobody in our times has undertaken such a massive exercise”, he pointed out, while adding, that both Yatras immensely helped in bringing the issues concerning the common man to the national center stage.

Kharge stressed the need to spell out the five commitments of justice the 25 guarantees across the country and the agenda for the party’s government for the next five years.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that the Manifesto is not merely a document but a roadmap based on dialogue with tens of thousands of people during the Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. This is going to change the lives of all Indians through revolutionary guarantees like that of employment and proportionate participation and representation in the decision-making process, he added.

Gandhi said, the Congress would fight the elections on the agenda of ‘five resolutions of justice’ with five guarantees each for every resolution making it a total of ‘25 guarantees’ that will touch every Indian’s life.

Briefing reporters after the meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Congress General Secretary, organization KC Venugopal along with the General Secretary Communications, Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera said that the 25 guarantees will be the “game changer” of the ensuing elections.

Venugopal said that the CWC has authorized the Congress President for final approval of the manifesto. “A decision on the date of its release will be taken soon”, he added.

Ramesh said this is not going to be the routine manifesto done as a formality ahead of elections, but “our Nyaya Patra” (commitment to justice). He said the Congress is fully prepared to liberate the country from the “injustice of the last 10 years of BJP”.

He said the CWC held a detailed and threadbare discussion on economic policy, foreign policy, constitutional protection, environment, and national interest among several other things. “It will be a manifesto of hope for the nation”, he remarked, while adding, that the guarantees in the Congress party’s manifesto are not from a single person, an oblique reference to ‘Modi’s guarantees’, but those from the Congress party.