BJP Manifesto "Laundry List of Disconnected Ideas": Congress

Congress dismissed the BJP manifesto as a "laundry list of disconnected ideas" and said the opposition party's talking of minority welfare "is like talking of dracula as head of the blood bank".

Congress dismissed the BJP manifesto as a "laundry list of disconnected ideas" and said the opposition party's talking of minority welfare "is like talking of dracula as head of the blood bank".

The other tags used by Congress in attacking manifesto ranged from "a high school essay of an uninformed student, a damp squib and a copycat job".

Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi also accused BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi of copying the remarks of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at the BJP manifesto release function.

Referring to the document promising madrasa modernisation among other welfare measures, Singhvi charged BJP with being too casual in the job. He reminded Gujarat government had gone upto the Supreme Court to stall the Centre's scholarships to students from the minority community.

Alleging BJP was not serious about the document, he said that for the first time in independent India, a manifesto has been released when people had reached the booths to participate in the first phase of polling.

"It shows how seriously they insult the intelligence of people of India. It is the manifesto of a party which takes people of India granted. It is perversion and subversion of the very concept of manifesto", Singhvi said adding the delay was because BJP did not want to give a chance to the electorate to think on the promises made by it.

Accusing BJP of being a "copycat", Singhvi said the manifesto was "not even a cut-and-paste job" of Congress document, except change of the name.

"Imitation is the best form of flattery. We are fully flattered. They have copied so much that they have even copied the date of the release of Congress manifesto", he said.

"For BJP, election is about personality, not policy, about a person and not a programme. The pretender PM candidate of this presumptious party has insulted the people of India", Singhvi said.

He accused BJP of being a victim of selective amnesia in inclusion of future plans in the manifesto and said many of the programmes included in the manifesto have already been implemented by UPA.

Singhvi also attacked BJP for its promise in the manifesto on GST accusing the opposition party of doing everything possible to obstruct the impelementation of the measure in the past few years.

He also made light of BJP over its promises on industrial corridors, linking rural employment scheme MGNERGA to agriculture and its housing and health plans saying such schemes already exist.

"Had it not been election time, we would have lodged a case of intellectual property rights," he said adding the Congress manifesto was based on ten years of its track record in governance.

Singhvi described BJP's manfiesto as "not worth the paper it is written upon" and having "no novelty of idea".

Drawing parallel from Agatha Christie's mystery novels, he said BJP's poll document that came after so much wait and anticipation is a "damp squip" in value addition and ideation.

He also alleged BJP has once again brought its pet issues like Ram temple, abrogation of Article 370 and uniform civil code in the manifesto, which are "intended not to be fulfilled" as the same were put in cold storage when BJP had come to power in 1999.

Singhvi said BJP's pitch on middle class in the manifesto is a "copy" from Rahul Gandhi's idea and questioned Murli Manohar Joshi over his claim that his party's manifesto was prepared after consultations from stakeholders.

"Rahul Gandhi had held such consultations for Congress manifesto and that was in public domain and in media. We ask BJP who are the witnesses of their consultations. This is the height of fraud and hypocrisy," he said.

Singhvi also claimed while BJP has opposed FDI in retail in its manfiesto, Modi had in the past supported it.

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