The two largest national parties—the BJP and the Congress—have recognised unemployment and rising prices as important issues for the 2024 elections. Their promises focus largely on providing relief to the people on these two counts through welfarism. But while doing so, they have failed to present structural solutions for the longer term.
The BJP is silent on farm distress and labour issues, while the Congress does not present a plan to mitigate the impact of its giveaways on economic growth. Both parties have offered what has been termed by some experts as “charity” to help the weaker sections tide over inflation and joblessness.
The BJP’s 67-page manifesto does not mention the term ‘unemployment’, but offers a series of steps to temporarily help the poor and the jobless. It has promised to continue the free ration scheme—launched in 2020 to feed more than 80 crore people—for another five years.
The Union government has also been providing direct financial assistance of Rs 6,000 a year to small and marginal farmers; the BJP has promised to continue this scheme. The party is, however, silent on the farmers’ demand for the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and a legal guarantee for minimum support prices.
The Congress manifesto, on the other hand, plays up the issue of unemployment by highlighting how its government between 2004 and 2014 generated rural employment by bringing in the national job guarantee programme or MGNREGA. It has promised an urban version of the law that would guarantee one-year apprenticeships to graduates and diploma holders, with an assured payment of Rs 1 lakh for a year.
It has also promised to fill the 30 lakh vacancies in central government departments. The party has assured a direct transfer of Rs 1 lakh to a woman in every poor household. On the farm front, the Congress promises implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and legal guarantee for minimum support price, one of the two demands that led to the 16-month-long agitation by farmers.
These promises by the two leading political parties underline some of the toughest problems faced by a vast majority of the people in the country. However, the solutions offered by them show a lack of fiscal prudence and reliance on the so-called revdi or handout culture. It’s time political parties started fighting elections on growth-oriented, financially-prudent policies that help the country achieve its long-term goals.