BJP's Delhi manifesto

The BJP’s manifesto — an exhaustive 31-page document, against Congress’ mere 16 pages of achievements and promises — had something for everybody. The micro groups are all taken care of. From displaced Kashmiris to Punjabis — promises of making Punjabi the second language were reiterated — to Sindhis — they can look forward to a ‘‘special commissioner’’ should the party be voted to power — to traders to women, there is something for everybody. Yet, at the macro level the attempt to look at itself through the NDA prism is hard to miss. In fact, the party described the Assembly elections as ‘‘mini general election in six states’’, raising issues ranging from farmers’ suicides to falling Sensex to making police and intelligence agencies more efficient. The absence of the statehood issue in the Congress manifesto set the tone for the day with chief ministerial candidate VK Malhotra charging the ruling party with ‘‘cheating Delhi twice over by putting the blame for the pathetic law and order situation on the Central government and then not pushing for statehood which is the only way to alter that situation. Anyway they cannot escape blame for what is the Centre’s fault because they are in control there too.’’ State BJP president Harshvardhan recounted the time when Dikshit had been as the head of a ‘‘long procession’’ demanding statehood and the dual promise time and again how the demand would be met pronto once the party comes to power in the state and at the Centre. Quick to pounce on the ongoing agitation of farmers at Kanjhawala, the party promised to give a compensation of at least Rs 2 crore per acre whenever farm land is acquired. ‘‘We are not keen on acquisitions unless it is absolutely necessary for a project,’’ Malhotra said. The vicious criticism of BRT notwithstanding, the party stopped short of talking about scrapping of the project, once more. There was only a promise for a review. The ‘‘reconstitution’’ of MCD and the formation of a separate municipal corporation for the Trans-Yamuna area find mention several times. In fact, true to the Congress style of special emphasis on east Delhi, there is also a promise for an East campus of Delhi University in the Trans-Yamuna area. Education gets extra attention ranging from a promise to set up 50 new colleges — Malhotra in answer to a query about space said colleges would function out of higher secondary school buildings — a Delhi State Textbook Corporation, a composite school for every ward along with local committees to monitor them and a promise to not just fill all vacancies in posts of teachers in government schools but also to increase their retirement age. The bid to target Dikshit is evident with an entire section dedicated to her ‘‘attempts to insult Delhiites’’ which mentions her statement about how Delhi needs lessons in using the road, migrants from UP and Bihar exerting burden on the city’s infrastructure and her comment about people being ‘‘adventurous’’ immediately after the Soumya Vishwanathan murder. The manifesto kicks off with a listing of the achievements of the BJP government between 1993 and 1998 which includes setting up of the Trans-Yamuna development Board, the pulse polio programme and bans on lottery and cow slaughter. Under the achievements of the BJP-controlled MCD there is mention of the agency’s budgetary increase, sanctioning of new parking lots and property tax concessions. The effort to steal the tag of environment-friendliness from the Congress government is apparent as the party promises to constitute a board under the chief minister to monitor pollution levels and increase the green cover from 18% to 25%. There is also a bid to cash in on its traditional image of a ‘‘traders’ party’’ by promising to set up a separate department for trade and commerce and to make it free of red tape.