The real reason for the inordinate delay in the release of the BJP’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls seems to be getting clear now. It looks like the whole thing has been meticulously planned so as not to face the electorate on burning issues confronting their daily lives and hide the ruling party’s failure to keep its electoral pledges since 2014. This has been brought home by the loud protests made by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) 15 April that the BJP manifesto has no mention of the minimum support price (MSP) at the formula suggested by the Swaminathan Commission. It termed the manifesto an “open challenge” against farmers and farm workers. The SKM’s allegation that the manifesto is silent on agrarian crisis in the country, while farmers’ suicides continue unabated, has exposed the inanities and false hopes about a distant future contained in the manifesto. Despite the tall promises, the manifesto has no mention of MSP at C2+50 per cent as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission, guarantee on procurement, farmers’ suicides and loan waiver. It merely says the BJP government will continue to increase MSP from time to time without any reference to inflation. Other political parties in their election manifestos have been categorical on the agrarian crisis and the need for remunerative MSP. On the other hand, PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi of Rs 6,000 per year for farmers means a meagre Rs 500 per month to a farmer household. The stark reality is that over 4 lakh persons, including one lakh farmers and 3 lakh daily wage workers have committed suicide since the Modi government took over in 2014 till 2022. The ruling dispensation, the SKM alleges, did not provide debt relief of a single rupee to farmers and farm worker households despite the promise the BJP made in its 2014 election manifesto. The irony is that under the BJP, commercial banks have written off Rs 14.55 lakh crore to corporate houses during the past nine years. The government’s insensitivity to small farmers is borne out by the fact that it does not address the serious issue of agrarian crisis whereas 30 farmers on average commit suicide daily across the country.
In fact, the BJP’s manifesto hardly promises anything for farmers. It merely talks about a continuing increase in MSP of crops “from time to time.” This is what the government has been doing anyway. What is even worse is that the 2024-25 interim Budget, unlike the one five years ago, did not announce any hike in the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi payout. The conclusion one can draw from it is that the BJP is so confident of winning the polls by relying on the PM’s image and its rabidly communal campaign based on the Ram temple construction that it does not want to rake up the memories of the revolt of farmers against the Modi government’s anti-farmer farm laws by touching on farm issues. The protests against the three farm laws were one of the most serious challenges the Modi government had to face in its 10 years. It had to repeal them. No wonder it merely iterates the government’s existing programmes, including self-reliance in pulses and edible oils, establishing clusters for production of essential TOP (tomato, onion, potato) vegetables and promoting natural farming.
That is not all. The BJP manifesto seems unwilling to explain why the government failed to deliver on its promises such as 2 crore jobs every year, Rs 15 lakh in every bank account, stopping atrocities on Dalit and Adivasi women, 100 smart cities, bullet trains, cleaning the Ganga and five trillion dollar economy by 2022. On the issue of giving a fitting rebuff to China for encroaching on Indian territories, the government is evasive, while the External Affairs Minister is following an ostrichlike policy by denying that encroachment has taken place at all.
All these, it appears, have prompted the BJP to leave no scope for debate on its performance, giving the electorate barely any time to look at its record in the form of its election manifesto before casting their votes. A disorganised Opposition and a larger-than-life image of the PM, the party’s main face, created by a compromised television media, are the basis of such confidence. But all that hardly does any service to the poor and needy.