Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today slammed "delay" in release of BJP's manifesto, saying it reflects the deep personality clashes within the party which is not seeking a mandate for itself but for one individual and the country needs a party manifesto not "Modifesto".
"Elections start on April 7. Today, we are on April 2 and the BJP's manifesto is yet to be released... At least they should release manifesto for 33 minutes like Rajnath Singh promised BJP sarkar for 33 minutes before he was forced to change it to Modi sarkar," Ramesh told reporters here.
Noting that manifesto articulates a party's ideology, action plan and agenda, the Congress leader said since BJP is not seeking a mandate for the party and it is seeking the mandate for one individual "may be the BJP feels that a party manifesto is not necessary."
"Congress released its manifesto on March 26. And we had hoped that the BJP would do soon thereafter so that there would be a debate on the manifesto. Now we are left with a debate between a manifesto and a Modifesto. What India needs is a party manifesto not an individual Modifesto," said Ramesh, who was a key contributer to the Congress manifesto.
Taking a dig at the BJP which is hit with "factionalism", he said, "it is probably that the Sushma chapter, the Advani chapter, the Jaitley chapter, Yashwant Sinha chapter could not be put together in one document."
"It has never happened before that a major political party claiming to be a party that wants to form government... it has never happened before in 15 elections to the Lok Sabha that a national party has not released its manifesto in time," the Union minister said.
"I think this reflects the state of the BJP, it reflects the deep personality clashes within the BJP and it reflects the intellectual bankruptcy in the BJP," he said.
Describing the party manifesto as a "sacred document", Ramesh said it conveys the political message. "But I am quite surprised.... We released it exactly 12 days before the first phase of the elections. This is long enough period for debate to take place.
