Congress to come out with people-friendly manifesto, says DK Shivakumar

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday said that the Congress manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be "pro-people."

While speaking at the meeting of the Congress Manifesto Committee, Shivakumar said, "Congress will prepare a people-friendly manifesto that will help all sections of society. A similar exercise was done while preparing a manifesto for the Assembly election, and we launched the five-guarantee scheme based on the same."

Taking a jibe at the BJP, he said that during the last 10 years, not a single scheme was launched that changed lives.

"The 10 years of Manmohan Singh government were about improving the lives of people, but during the 10 years of BJP rule, even a single scheme was not launched that changed the lives of people. Schemes such as food security, MGNREGA, the right to education, and others were introduced during the UPA rule," he said.

Shivakumar further said that though Karnataka was a progressive state, 61 per cent of the population lived in rural areas. "As much as 96 per cent of the tax revenues came from urban areas, but the contribution of our farmers was immense, and we can't move forward without them," he said.

He said that the Congress had always implemented schemes that empowered the poor. "The Congress government has always implemented any scheme that empowers the poor economically, socially, and educationally. We had introduced Nyay in the previous election, and many schemes were based on that. The idea of the Gruhajyothi scheme took birth in a meeting between Siddaramaiah, Surjewala, and myself. Now, Modi is trying to copy that by giving 300 units of free power through the solar grid," he said.

He also alleged that the BJP was trying to launch guarantee schemes based on the schemes of the Congress. "The same BJP that was criticising our guarantee schemes has now launched the Modi guarantee campaign. The BJP, which was criticising the guarantee scheme as a burden on the exchequer, is now launching similar schemes in many states. Congress always believes in bringing change into the lives of people," he said.

He called upon the participants of the manifesto meeting to provide ideas that are rooted in reality. "We have raised our voice against the injustice meted out to our state. Other states are also raising their voice now. The Union government can set this injustice right if it wants to," he said.

He further said that a committee was formed under the leadership of Higher Education Minister to review the National Education Policy (NEP). "We are working on removing the NEP. I have had discussions with my BJP friends who run educational institutions, and they say it is impossible to implement NEP. The BJP tried to push the NEP down the throat of Kannadigas in a hurried manner. We have formed a committee to review the NEP under the leadership of Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar," Shivakumar added.