Congress Pegs Main Slogan On Economic Freedom

The Congress yesterday coined its main agenda for the Lok Sabha election as Arthik Swaraj, Gharibon ka Raj (economic freedom, rule of the poor) emending one of the Gharibi Hatao slogan of Indira Gandhi days.

Member of the partys manifesto committee Pranab Mukherjee said the agenda does not mean the Congress would go populist over its economic agenda throwing sound economic policies to the wind.

He said that Congress believed that poverty could not be removed unless jobs were created. Economic and industrial growth were pre-requisite to job creation and therefore central to the partys agenda.

Mukherjee said unemployment was not such a major issue for manual labour, but for the educated unemployed. In any case, job creation and expansion of the economy was the only answer.

Two factors were essential for thissound economic management and stable government and policies.

Since the stability plank is also being raised by the Congress main rival, the BJP, the party would claim to be the only one who could achieve it as the BJP was not present in a major part of the country.

Sonia Gandhi has already defined the Congress idea of stability, through harmony among religious, linguistic and caste groups.

For herself, she has kept additional issues of Bofors and Babri mosque demolition thereby utilizing her identity as different from the Congress of non-Gandhi family days. By raising the Babri demolition issue, she has also sent a strong message to the Muslims that stresses the role of the Gandhi family in maintaining social harmony in the country.

Party spokesperson V N Gadgils announcement yesterday that a Congress would ensure freedom from poverty, unemployment, ignorance and ill health, was also in tune with its `sound economy agenda which elaborates that the governments role should be more vigorous in providing primary education, health and sanitation. Job creation would be a natural biproduct of economic growth. Mukherjee said that the country could not afford to have another round of instability. He said his party does not subscribe to the theory that the UF kind of government did not lack stability.

At the same time, a BJP government could also not be stable as it would not be based on social harmony.