Politics of slogan

Forget the manifesto. Focus on the slogan. It is not just in poll-bound Bihar; the battle of slogans is also hotting up in Punjab, where Assembly polls are due in 2017. Addressing a conference at the Rakhar Punia fair, held annually in the historical town of Baba Bakala, Partap Singh Bajwa, president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, sought the people's mandate on three issues: a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into an alleged drug scam, a debt waiver for farmers and the implementation of one rank one pension (OROP). Then, calling the Bharatiya Janata Party the "Bhartiya Jumla Party", he reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi that OROP was one of his election promises (Rewari, September 2013), and dilly-dallying on it amounted to cheating.