INDIA bloc manifesto pledges one job per household, review on liquor ban

Tejashwi Yadav-led alliance pledges jobs, welfare schemes and prohibition review in Bihar; BJP, JDU term promises unrealistic

With its focus on women and young voters, the INDIA bloc’s manifesto for the Bihar Assembly polls, released on Tuesday in Patna, promised a government job for at least one member of each of the state’s households.

 

There are an estimated 27.6 million households in Bihar.

 

The manifesto of the alliance, which has half a dozen constituents, also committed to reviewing prohibition in the state and releasing Dalits and poor people arrested in cases related to violating that law.

 

It has promised 200 units of free power to each household, a ₹2,500 monthly allowance to women of poor households from December 1, free public transport for women, and providing cooking-gas cylinders at ₹500.

 

 

It promised ₹2 lakh to 10 million households, which, according to the Caste Survey, earn ₹6,000 or less monthly.

 

For farmers, it has resolved to guarantee minimum support prices (MSPs) for crops, committed to government purchases of oilseeds, pulses, and maize at panchayat level, and operationalising the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act to restore the mandi system.

 

The manifesto has proposed allowing community farming for marginalised sections on fallow land, giving a ₹5,000 monthly stipend to fishermen during their lean season, and providing identity cards to sharecroppers and ensuring they get the MSP, the kisan credit card, and benefits of other government schemes.

 

The 32-page manifesto, titled “Bihar ka Tejaswi Pran”, or the Tejaswi resolve, a reference to the INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial candidate, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, features his image prominently, followed by a smaller image of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and thumbnails of other leaders of the alliance.

 

According to its caste survey in 2023, Bihar has 27.6 million households, and the INDIA bloc’s promise of ensuring a job to a member of each of these with a government job, if they do not have one already, has been termed unrealistic by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

 

However, at the release of the manifesto, Yadav said the alliance had sat with experts to work out a “blueprint” for its promises, including providing government jobs and revenue generation for welfare schemes.

 

Yadav also said he had immense sympathy and respect for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, giving a hint that the septuagenarian leader was unwell, and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and “corrupt officers” had turned him into a “puppet” in their hands.

 

The manifesto stated that the INDIA bloc government would bring in an ordinance within 20 days of forming the government to pave the way for providing one government job to each household. The promise will be carried out across the state within 20 months, it said. However, rival parties have pointed out that only 6.1 per cent of Bihar’s population, or eight million, are graduates, according to the caste survey, and barely 15 per cent have cleared matriculation.

 

The manifesto has also promised a monthly stipend of ₹2,500-3,000 to unemployed graduates and post-graduates, four times the market price for land acquisition based on the 2013 central law on the subject, and land for the landless.

 

The manifesto has talked of restoring the old pension scheme. It stated that an INDIA bloc government would not allow in Bihar the operation of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, and would do away with the 50 per cent cap on reservations through a resolution passed by the state legislature. It would then send it to the Centre so that the legislation is placed in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution and protected against judicial intervention.

 

On prohibition, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that brewing toddy would be exempt from the prohibition law, which was brought nine and a half years ago by the Nitish Kumar government. Other promises include increasing daily wages under the national rural employment guarantee scheme from ₹255 to ₹300, doubling the number of working days to 200, providing tablets to poor students of class 8 to 12, and creating 12.5 million jobs in the next five years.

 

The manifesto has promised ₹25 lakh health insurance, increasing the allowance for “jeevika didis” to ₹30,000 monthly, and making contract workers permanent.

 

The INDIA bloc has promised increasing the quotas for Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), Dalits and tribals in panchayats and municipal bodies. The manifesto also promised information-technology parks, special economic zones, dairy and agro-based industries, an education city and five new expressways in the state.

 

The BJP and Janata Dal (United) leadership termed the manifesto a “bundle of lies and full of unrealistic promises”.