I. PREAMBLE – A TIME TO START AFRESH

The time has come for making a fresh covenant, a new tryst with the people of India.

The Congress wants the people to make an informed choice in the elections to the 13th Lok Sabha. This Manifesto of the Indian National Congress provides the people this opportunity.

The Congress not just a political party. It encompasses the diverse interests of every section of India’s polity.

That is how it was born.

That is how it will continue.

Our legacy brought us freedom. The Congress is proud of its martyrs who, with unflinching zeal and supreme sacrifices, worked for the independence and integrity of India.

The legacy of the Congress –its commitment to an India that is secular, that is strong and self-reliant and that is wedded to political democracy, social justice and economic growth-was symbolised in the thoughts and deeds of its leaders through the years.

The Congress has governed India for 45 years. In that period, the Congress gave to the country five Prime Ministers. In contrast, in just seven years, non-Congress Governments have given seven Prime Ministers.

The recent experiment of an 18-party coalition Government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, has not only demonstrated the essence of unprincipled and opportunistic politics but also created doubts in the minds of the people whether such a formation can serve the best interests of the country.

Experience has shown that coalitions have never worked at the centre. The choice now is between a coalition that has failed miserably and a cohesive Congress alternative.

This coalition experiment, led by the BJP, was bereft of ideology. In recent weeks, the so-called NDA—the National Democratic Alliance of the BJP and its allies—has become a mockery and is more appropriately called the National Disaster Alliance. All principles and ideologies have been abandoned in the quest of new partners.

The BJP was, only for public consumption, willing to sacrifice, in the short-term, its sectarian and divisive ideology in the pursuit of political power. But the hidden agenda remained. The experiment was an unprincipled compromise for political power.

Each day of its rule demonstrated this.

Cabinet positions were negotiated. The importance of coalition partners was directly proportional to their ability to bring down the Government. We saw, in a short 13-month stint, a Government that spend more time at pleasing coalition partners than with the task of governance.

This was not, as claimed, a Government with a difference. This was a Government riddled with intra-party and inter-party differences.

It was condemned by the very logic of its formation to devote its energies to resolving these differences. There were as many power centres in the BJP-led coalition, as there were coalition partners. The Government tried to resolve a crisis a day.

The hope of the people was once again belied.

The urgent issues of poverty alleviation, employment generation, faster economic growth, greater fiscal discipline and enhanced social justice and giving to the people a secure and stable India were neglected. The BJP was intent on exploding the nuclear bomb, without adequate preparation or study of its consequences. Instead of keeping a vigil on the border, it let down its guard. It said it would give us a review of our security environment. All we have got are Pakistani intruders. In the name of peace and bus rides, over 400 parents have lost their sons, wives their husbands, children their fathers, sisters their brothers. Kargil was a tragedy nation brought about by the cavalier functioning of the BJP government and its criminal negligence.

The BJP has cost the nation heavily.

Our borders are insecure.

The Armed Forces experienced unprecedented crisis in their moral because of the actions of the government.

Instead of developing a consensus on foreign policy, the BJP fractured the existing consensus.

We witnessed, for the first time, the concept of a “roll-back” Government. Unprecedented and unapologetic minorities’ bashing was seen in Gujarat and Orissa. Blatant attempts were made to tinker with the tested secular education curriculum.

Where was the national interest in all this? At a time when stability was of the essence, we have got instability. At a time when social harmony was of the essence, we have just got social strife. The Congress pledges to provide to India a stable government, an able government, an experienced government.

It is time to start afresh.