"....time has come to reset and reprioritize our roadmap for economic development," says the Congress manifesto.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sparked controversy on Sunday after he said that if the Congress party were to come to power, it would redistribute wealth among those ‘with more children.’
The PM also cited former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's disputed remarks of 2006 that Muslims had the first claim on the country's resources.
"This urban-Naxal mindset, my mothers and sisters, they will not even leave your 'Mangalsutra'. They can go to that level," Modi said addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Banswara.
"The Congress manifesto says they will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, get information about it and then distribute that property. They will distribute it to whom - Manmohan Singh's government had said that Muslims have the first right on the country's assets," the PM said.
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| Modi at Jeshoreshwari Kali temple in Satkhira, Bangladesh, on Mar 27, 2021 |
Modi has played a trick. Technically speaking the Congress manifesto doesn’t mention anything about wealth distribution. But it does talk about "inequality between the rich on the one hand and the poor and middle classes on the other".
This could be true in a vastly populated country like India but Congress tried to ape the communists and sought to blame the government or the system for the same. The truth is lost somewhere as people in India have wide ranges of differences in salaries as well based on organisations, sectors etc.
Peons and drivers in post 7th Pay Commission government departments and some PSUs like ONGC, NTPC at one point earned thousands and lakhs -- figures not imagined in private sectors.
That's why some organisations have run into sick units and companies had to adopt to hire and fire systems.
But Modi linked three different things and different contexts and tried to connect the joints .....
Actually, the fact of the matter is the Congress has walked into its own trap in more ways than one. Firstly, Manmohan Singh's remarks on Dec 10, 2006 that minorities and specially Muslims have first claim to natural resources was unwarranted.
Secondly aping the ultra leftist ideology, the Congress has done something 'technically wrong' in this year's Manifesto -- calling it Nyay Patra.
In the introduction section, the manifesto, ‘Nyay Patra’ of the grand old party talks about inequality between the rich on the one hand and the poor and middle classes on the other having increased sharply dealing a body blow to the goals of equality, equity, and social and economic justice.
The document mentions a report titled “Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj" by leading global economists, including Thomas Piketty, showing that India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more unequal than even under the British Raj.
“We will address the growing inequality of wealth and income through suitable changes in policies," says the Congress manifesto in Economy section.
Such statements are open to interpretation and even misinterpretation certainly.
The Congress target was Modi and Gautam Adani -- but it seems all these coming back as self-goals.
The Congress manifesto maintains that a ‘Nav Sankalp Economic Policy’ should be framed and also says that after 33 years (since economic Liberalisation) the time was ripe for a re-set of economic policy.
“This policy will aim to build a fair, just and equal-opportunity economy and bring prosperity to all sections of the people. Congress will herald a new beginning, just as we did in 1991, involving all sections of the people in nation-building.
The time has come to reset and reprioritize our roadmap for economic development in the context of the twin challenges to our economy, namely, unemployment and inflation," reads the manifesto.
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