Election 2024: A battle of guarantees

Hyderabad: Guarantee, an English word, one must say, has created a lot of buzz or made waves or is most talked about in political circles across the country in recent times.

We have witnessed general elections every five years in the country, but the usage or stress on this particular term is more prominent than ever before in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. Various political parties or their leaders are no exception to this.

They have banked on "Guarantee" to spread their message to the masses or criticize the rival parties. Congress, BJP, AAP, etc have centered their election manifestos around the word "Guarantee" while senior political leaders of regional parties like BJD, BRS, and YSRCP to name a few are using the G-word in their speeches, political statements or tweets corner their rivals on election promises.

Guarantee used for the first time in elections

However, one thing to be noted is it was this "Guarantee" term that Congress relied upon heavily in Assembly elections held in Karnataka and Telangana in 2023 to outclass their opponents and form the government against all odds in these two states. And it's no wonder, Congress decided to continue that sentiment for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in its national manifesto comprising 5 Nyay and 25 Guarantees.

Five Guarantees in Karnataka and Six Guarantees in Telangana that were key to our election manifestos, helped us win the "nammakam" (trust or confidence) of the public and thereby the election battle in the two states, stated, Irfan Aziz, Chapter Head of All India Professionals Congress (AIPC), a wing of the Congress that is closely involved in preparation of election manifesto for Lok Sabha polls.

Election guarantee is a promise that we have assured the people to fulfill if voted to power and that's what we have been doing in Karnataka and Telangana states in the last few months, Irfan Aziz added, saying that BJP latched on to its success mantra by using G-word big time in the form of Modi ki Guarantee slogans for the present Lok Sabha elections.

Congress has no copyright on 'guarantee'

However, BJP senior leader N Ramachander Rao countered this argument. He said Congress holds no copyrights on this commonly and regularly used English word "Guarantee".

"Guarantee is not new to the BJP. It came up in internal discussions and meetings of the BJP when the agenda was election promises although it was never highlighted in public domain. For BJP, Guarantee means a promise that we will abide by unlike Congress that is duping people in the name of election guarantees," Ramachander Rao stated.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP's) election manifestos for assembly and local body polls held in Goa, Karnataka earlier and the present Lok Sabha polls centered around Guarantee.

Meanwhile, BRS working president KT Rama Rao took to Twitter many times in the last six months questioning the ruling Congress party's commitment to Guarantees for the people of Telangana.

Corporatization of politics

Noted political expert Telakapalli Ravi felt that market terms like "Guarantee" making their waking way into electioneering and political terminology are an indication of the corporatization of politics in the country. Like how marketing agencies promote their products by using terms like Warranty or Guarantee to gain the trust of customers, we see now political parties and their think tanks using such terms to attract voters.

Agreeing with the fact that never before elections centered around a term like Guarantee in the past, Ravi cited the examples of big initiatives or promises like Rs 2 kg rice (by NTR), Free power (by YSR), Rythu Bandhu (by KCR), Navarathnalu (by YS Jagan) where there was no usage of market terms to reach out to voters.