The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised on Monday to implement a uniform civil code (UCC) in Karnataka, introduce a national register of citizens (NRC), and set up a special police unit to probe religious fundamentalism, in addition to a raft of welfare schemes aimed at families below the poverty line (BPL), if voted back to power in the May 10 assembly elections.
Party chief JP Nadda released the BJP’s Praja Pranalike, or people’s manifesto, in Bengaluru, and said it was centred around six As — anna (food security), akshara (quality education), arogya (affordable health), aadaya (assured income), abhaya (social justice for all), and abhivruddhi (development).
The party announced three free gas cylinders a year to BPL families, in addition to half-a-litre of milk every day and 5kg of millets in monthly ration kits to these households. It also pledged to open affordable canteens across the state and build one million houses for homeless people in a major welfare push. It promised to establish a state capital region for Bengaluru and a bouquet of measures for pilgrims, including a Ram temple in the state.
But its promise of UCC and NRC garnered the most attention.
{{/usCountry}}But its promise of UCC and NRC garnered the most attention.
{{/usCountry}}“We will implement the UCC in Karnataka based on the recommendations given by a high-level committee, which will be constituted for the purpose… We will introduce the NRC in Karnataka and ensure the speedy deportation of all illegal immigrants in the state,” said the 48-page manifesto.
UCC aims to replace laws based on religious texts or traditions, to set common laws for marriage, divorce, succession, adoption, guardianship and partition of land and assets for all citizens. It has been a long-pending demand of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP and has been part of the BJP’s election manifesto for decades.
“The Constitution (of India) allows us to move in the direction of UCC. Justice to all, appeasement to none is our policy,” Nadda said.
This was in line with similar promises made by the BJP in other poll-bound states such as Uttarakhand and Gujarat in the past. In some of these states, such as Uttarakhand, the state government has set up a panel to come up with a draft law.
Similarly, the NRC exercise was conducted in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court in 2019 to identify illegal migrants, but the process has since been mired in controversy. The government has previously told Parliament that there was no discussion on a nationwide NRC.
The BJP is hoping to hold off challenges from the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) to retain power in the only southern state it controls. The results of the elections will be announced on May 13.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the manifesto. “The BJP Praja Pranalike 2023 is development-centric and sets the tone for building on the good work done by our government in the last four years in the state,” he tweeted.
In the document, the BJP said it will provide three free cooking gas cylinders to all BPL families — one each during the months of “Yugadi”, “Ganesh Chaturthi” and “Deepavali”.
“We will set up an Atal Aahara Kendra in every ward of every municipal corporation in the state to provide affordable, quality and healthy food across the state,” the manifesto said.
It also promised to launch the Poshane scheme under which every BPL household will be provided with half-a-litre of milk from the Nandini brand free of cost, and five kg of shri anna or millets through monthly ration kits. Promotion of the Nandini brand of milk was the source of a major political controversy in the early days of the campaign.
The party also promised to implement the Sarvarigu Suru Yojane, under which the revenue department will identify and distribute one million housing sites across the state to the homeless beneficiaries. In other states such as Uttar Pradesh, beneficiaries of welfare schemes have formed a major chunk of BJP supporters.
The manifesto was released days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised the practice of offering freebies or revadi to voters for short-term electoral gains, something that the Opposition used to attack the BJP on Monday.
“BJP has failed in coming up with a plan. They said they will ban freebies then why are they giving three gas cylinders? We are offering ₹2,000 so that people can cope with the price rise including that of the cooking gas. If they announce these schemes, they are saints, if we give it they are freebies,” said state Congress chief DK Shivakumar.
Former chief minister Siddaramaiah said the BJP should have released a report card first.
“@BJP4Karnataka should release their report card before their new manifesto. BJP leaders have no regards for the promises they make. They have not fulfilled more than 90 per cent of their promises made in the previous elections. BJP means betrayers,” the Congress leader tweeted.
The Congress is yet to release its manifesto but has released at least five guarantees so, including promising 200 units of free power, ₹2,000 for women heads of families and 10kg rice for poor families.
The BJP announced a one-time grant of ₹25,000 for poor families to undertake religious pilgrimage, measures to free temples from government control, a subsidy of ₹5,000 for all pilgrims travelling to Varanasi, construction of a Ram temple in Ramanagara, and a Anubhava Manatapa at a cost of ₹600 crore to honour 12th-century Lingayat reformer Basaveshwara, among others. “A committee will be constituted for granting complete autonomy to temple administration,” the manifesto read.
Bengaluru found a major place in the document. The party said it will establish a State Capital Region (SCR) for Bengaluru to encompass “a comprehensive city development strategy, cohesive transportation networks, and cutting-edge digital integration”.
“A world-class Multi-Modal Transport Hub ‘Concorde Bangalore’, similar to the World Trade Center (WTC) transport hub in New York, will be established to act as a single central node for all public and on-demand transport services,” the manifesto said.
“A Bengaluru Unified Transit Network will be created to revolutionise the city’s commuter experience through public engagement and continuous evolution,” the document added.
The party also promised to eradicate manual scavenging, institute free annual health check-ups for senior citizens, constitute a ₹30,000 crore agriculture fund to set up micro storage facilities, allot ₹1,500 crore for developing tourism spots in Kalyan Karnataka, hiking the insurance cover under Ayushmann Bharat from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh and build chemotherapy and dialysis centres in every taluka.
The Congress called the manifesto bogus. “Ninety per cent of promises made by the 40 per cent commission government in its 2018 manifesto were never fulfilled. Today, another set of bogus manifesto promises have been made by the corrupt and incompetent BJP and Bommai government,” party general secretary Randeep Surjewala tweeted.