Opposition unimpressed with Congress' manifesto

Following the release of Congress manifesto, the BJPs and other opposition parties have started to examine it threadbare. While the Congress speaks in support of the manifesto the opposition doesn't seem to buy it at all.

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan said he was not amused to hear a Congress leader backing his party's manifesto.

"Congress' manifesto is only to dupe the common man. They are following neo-liberal policies and they are seeking to continue them as well. They are seeking to continue the same policies and they have not added anything new in it. They have added some populist polices within the manifesto. There is no basis in what they are saying," Bardhan said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader M.J. Akbar trashed the Congress manifesto and termed it an insincere effort by the party.

"Manifesto may have been released, but it is a big question as to whether it was a manifesto or was that just a farce. What is important is that why is people angry in the nation. What were you doing when you did not give any jobs all these years and now at the time of elections you are yet again making such tall promises which I think has enraged the youth a lot," Akbar said.

Congress leader Shobha Oza, defended her party's manifesto and said that the intentions of the manifesto were good and the country has witnessed the results in the past. Hence, she was not ready to buy Modi's views calling Congress manifesto as a joke

"BJP is used to making fun out of our manifestos and ideas. Earlier they had opposed Information Technology during the time of Rajiv Gandhi and veteran leaders of the BJP like Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani had opposed it tooth and nail in the Parliament saying that if IT comes to India then the country won't prosper. Now you can see for yourself the difference with its arrival with crores of youths from India, now ruling the world," Oza said.

"In our last manifesto also when we talked about MGNREGA, Panchayati Raj, then also they laughed at us but now they themselves have become a joke. This time also we are talking of giving jobs to 10 crore youths, there is a talk of giving women 25 % reservation in the police force , all of this has rattled the BJP," Oza added.

She stated that Modi may be laughing at our manifesto, but soon a time will come when the people will laugh at him during the elections.

Earlier, the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had said that the manifesto for her party was a sacred document and not a ritual as it was for "some other parties", in response to Sonia's comments Modi had tweeted saying "manifestos are sacrosanct but today's Congress manifesto was a joke! It repeated all the promises they haven't been able to fulfil since 2004.