| An extended Working Committee of the Congress will meet today to give its assent to the 32-page manifesto of the party that will have as its main thrust, unemployment, poverty reduction and a higher rate of economic growth.
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| Party sources said draft of the manifesto was ready and would be discussed at the CWC tomorrow along with an extended “vision document” that would set out the Congress policies for the next five years.
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| The party would commit itself to disinvestment only in areas that were non-core and non-strategic, would spell out strategies for the gross domestic product (GDP) growth and while promising to continue with reform, would seek to highlight the plight “of those for whom India is not shining,” a party leader said.
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| The draft follows extensive debate in the party on whether it should target as its exclusive catchment area of voters, the rising middle class, or continue to campaign for the impoverished.
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| “We are happy that India is doing well. All we are saying is, this is nothing to do with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s endeavours. India would have shone any way and we are promising that in the next five years, India will achieve even higher rates of growth if the Congress comes to power,” said a leader.
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| The party is chary of debunking the India Shining slogan because it might be considered unpatriotic and a Cassandra.
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| Nor does it want to recall associations of poverty in the midst of the current spate of consumer spending. And yet, morally, the party believes it must speak up for the unemployed and the poor because this is an area where the BJP has promised but has been unable to deliver.
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| Given the bipartisan view on foreign policy, there is not a lot that the party has said will differentiate it from the BJP.
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| However, non-alignment continues to be a bugbear that the party does not know how to deal with.
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| The manifesto is going to have a section on Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women and minorities. But despite the Gujarat riots and the repeated condemnation of communalisation of politics by the party, this is not going to be the thrust of the manifesto.
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| Nor was corruption of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) going to feature in any significant political way in the document, party sources said. |
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Content Guide
