AFSPA amendment necessary to balance rights of armed forces with human rights: Congress

Asserting that its manifesto is completely implementable by a "competent and wise government", Congress on Tuesday said that its promise of amending the AFSPA was about striking a balance between rights of armed forces and human rights.

Addressing a media briefing hours after the release of the poll manifesto, former union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said, "We will amend the law (AFSPA). We will balance the rights of security forces and human rights and would remove immunity only in three cases namely enforced disappearance, sexual violence, and torcher. I have been a Home Minister and we recognise that armed forces require a certain amount of immunity but we also realise that human rights have to be respected. We will need to balance that."

Chidambaram also responded to BJP's claims of Congress manifesto being impossible to implement and said that it may be impossible for BJP to implement but not for Congress.

"I concede that it's unimplementable by a BJP government but what do you assume that a future government can't implement it. The BJP won't answer and the Prime Minister won't touch upon the subject of jobs, farmer's distress, women and children security, the neglect of public education and healthcare institutions so why would they concede that it is implementable. It's implementable by a competent and wise government and Congress will provide it," he said.

Chidambaram also asserted that 54 pages of Congress manifesto have been completely made according to the feedback given by citizens of India.

"These are the things that people want to be addressed by a future government. We think our economy will be stronger and poverty will be considerably reduced at the end of five years," he said.

The senior Congress leader also reaffirmed promise of implementing a single-slab GST and said, "World-over GST is standard single rate and we will follow the same practice. We cannot predict the appropriate rate as of now."

He also said that Congress, if voted to power will repel the sedition law because it has become redundant with time.

"Sedition is a colonial-era law. Many eminent people have said that sedition must go. Sedition is no safeguard at all. It must go because it has become redundant due to subsequent laws," he added.

Setting the narrative for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party on Tuesday released its manifesto in which special focus has been on youth and farmers.

Congress has promised the creation of jobs to fill vacancies and providing a minimum support income of Rs 72,000 per year for poor families.