Youth slam Congress manifesto

“Youth slam Congress manifesto”, published in DNA, page number 9 on 25-03-2009.

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=9&eddate=3/25/2009

They view it as old wine in a new bottle. In the backdrop of recession-hit economy and widespread retrenchments, they say the AICC manifesto has miserably failed to focus on relief measures for the younger generation
Bhargavi Kerur. Bangalore


The All India Congress Committee (AICC) manifesto, which was expected to be pro-youth, turned own to be a cruel joke for them on Tuesday.
The city youth slammed the manifesto by describing it as "old wine in new bottle."
While presenting the manifesto, the party strategists thought that the 10 crore voters aged below 40 could give them that extra edge in their race for power.
But contrary to their expectations, the Bangalore youth literally ridiculed the presentation made by the AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"In the backdrop of recession-hit economy and widespread retrenchment, the party has completely failed to focus on relief measures for a section.
Apart from promises to bring in measures to address terrorism and introducing new tax measures, they have not said anything new. It is like old wine in new bottle," said a market analyst Naveen Hegde.

The promise to achieve a gross domestic progress (GDP) of 7% was widely ridiculed by youth who found it quite unrealistic.
"If AICC comes to power, they can achieve the promised rate of GDP growth only by making the non-tax payers cough up the tax," Prashant Kumar HV, a theatre personality, said.

"Where will they bring the money from? We are nearing a deficit of 10% of the total budget today. Are we moving towards raising that number? We have watched the performance of Congress governments over the past decades. They definitely lack the will power to implement measures to bring the GDP up," Naveen said. The public identity card, which the AICC plans to introduce after the all India census in 2011, was seen by youth as a measure of failure.

"It is again a political move and not out of a genuine concern to curb terrorism. We have a system with many loopholes. Instead of public ID card, let them introduce a social security card that would benefit the needy," Prashant said.

The measure to sell wheat at Rs3 per kilogram and rice at the same rate every month for families below the poverty line was again met with cynicism.

"They do not know what they are trying to do," Naveen said. "They are only looking towards creating a vote bank and not concerned about the uplift of the poor. The relief does not reach them. Look at what they have done in providing basic amenities and broadband connections," Prashant said. However, youth welcomed the move to encourage entrepreneurs.

"I have been hearing of measures for small entrepreneurs and its mention in the manifesto comes as a relief to the retrenched employees to start up their own ventures," said Vipul Kasera, the founder of commuteeasy.com, a car pooling venture.

k_bhargavi@dnaindia.net