Congress Asserts Ownership to ‘Guarantee’ Against AAP Claim
Congress released Delhi manifesto Image credit INC India
Congress First to Use Guarantee in election promises, says Jairam Ramesh
By Raisina Correspondent
New Delhi, January 29: The Congress on Wednesday said that the party for the first time used ‘guarantee’ in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly election. The Aam Adami Party (AAP) this week quoted AI ‘Siri’ to claim authorship on the use of word guarantee in elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also raised the slogan of ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The use of guarantee in manifesto has become now common among political parties.
“The Congress was the first to use the word ‘guarantee’ in May, 2023 before the Karnataka Assembly elections, but copycats like AAP and BJP tried to emulate Congress only to deceive the people,” said the Congress communication department chief Jairam Ramesh.
He was speaking at the unveiling of the Congress manifesto for the Delhi Assembly elections. He said that people trust the Congress to fulfill its guarantees as it had done in Congress-ruled States, and the guarantees given in the manifesto for the Delhi Assembly elections will be fulfilled.
He said that Manmohan Singh-headed Congress Government at the Centre was the first to give a ‘guarantee’—the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme—as it was a legal right of the people.
Ramesh said that if air pollution has made people gasp for breath, both the Modi and Kejriwal Governments were responsible, as they did not take this issue seriously, like the cleaning of the Yamuna.
Delhi Minister and the AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj on the occasion of the unveiling of the party manifesto had quoted ‘Siri’ to claim that former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal invented the term guarantee in promises.
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Ramesh said that the Congress Government headed by the Sheila Dikshit Government introduced 7000 CNG buses on Delhi roads to check air pollution, and put in place a Yamuna Action Plan and the expansion of the Metro so as to eliminate both air and water pollution, and privatized DESU (Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking) to ensure uninterrupted power supply efficiently and transparently but false charges were levelled against the Congress Government in 2013 to mislead the people.
He said that what people in Delhi now want is not “doing ease of business, but ease of breath”.
The Congress had earlier announced five guarantees already announced — ₹2500 per month Pyari Didi Yojna, ₹25 lakh life-long health insurance scheme, ₹8500 per month scholarship for educated unemployed for one year for their skill development, ₹500 gas cylinder plus a ration kit and 300 units of free power.
The Congress on Wednesday announced to establish round-the-clock dispensaries in all the 250 blocks, 700 libraries with 10 in each Assembly, the 15,000 civil defence volunteers sacked by the Kejriwal Government will be reemployed.
The party also committed that all the ad hoc/contract employees will be regularized. The Congress also said that a special Ministry for the people of Uttaranchal will be established.
It also stated that the monthly pension for old people, widows and handicapped will be increased from ₹2500 to ₹5000 per month.
The Congress also promised 100 Indira Canteens providing nutritious thali meal for ₹5, round the clock water supply by effectively plugging 55 per cent leakage of water, and ownership rights to those living in resettlement colonies for over 40 years.
The Congress also promised allotment of the 55,000 flats constructed for the poor. “The Congress Government will implement the Smart Village concept, as despite acquiring their lands for development, the villagers have not been given adequate compensation, and the Circle Rate will be revised to ₹5 crore,” added the party.
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