With just couple of days remaining for the elections in Karnataka the campaigning by the political parties and their candidates has reached a feverish pitch.
Every ‘time tested’ method of persuasion – from mudslinging to subtle ’emotional atyachaar’- is being used to steal a vote from the opponent. The only one who is left confused in this mad cacophony is the common man.
A tool to rationally approach the daunting task of deciphering the intentions and contentions of the parties for us, the common folks is perhaps, the election manifesto. Every political party claims that its manifesto is based on the desires and aspirations of the people. So, an analysis of these sundry election promises is due.
Though the state level manifestos may be drafted along ideological lines and other philosophical ideas, what people ultimately look for is whether there is something in it for them. However, NewsKarnataka has made an attempt to analyse the local promises made by two of the biggest parties in Dakshina Kannada district alone.
While the Congress and the BJP have very similar focal points, the BJP is giving priority to tourism while the Congress is for infrastructure development.
The BJP plans to use the naturally gifted coastal Karavali region and have focused to build their tourism development plans around water sports. They want to introduce more water sports along our beaches and even identify areas along the rivers such as Nethravathi, Kumaradhara and others, to introduce adventure sports.
The Congress has also given a place for tourism in its manifesto although, it does not feature as high as it does on that of the BJP’s. The BJP’s added emphasis on tourism is probably because it has been estimated to be the highest employment generating sector in the economy for the local population.
The Congress is taking a different route to employment generation. They are banking on both industrial development and tourism. From this we can see that the Congress party is trying to create employment opportunities for the highly educated youth, who have in the recent past chosen to migrate to bigger cities and/or foreign countries for better prospects. They have promised to open five industrial parks and zonal based tourism like education tourism, adventure tourism, coastal tourism, religious tourism and cultural and medical tourism.
The main thing that stands out about the Congress party’s manifesto is that they want to develop Mangaluru city as an Information Technology/Biotechnology hub. It promises to make this district the next ‘Silicon Valley’ of India and the BPO hub in Karnataka. Considering that we are living in a time when artificial intelligence is being developed and is taking hold, the effectiveness of this plan is uncertain at best. Still… only time will tell.
In the list of BJP’s promises, the second slot goes to agriculture, the main focus being on arecanut considering that 50% of the arecanut produced in the country comes from Karnataka. The manifesto also talks about extending Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Market Intervention Scheme for rubber and arecanut. It also promises to reform the MSP to make it more scientific and responsive to market price changes of these commodities. It also promise to develop cold storage facilities in the district to extend the shelf life of the highly perishable fruits and vegetables.
The main point on which the two parties differ is Law and Order. The Congress seems to want to establish a High Court Divisional bench in the district. It also promises to open more mediation and dispute resolution centres in the district. Whereas, the BJP has promised to eradicate corruption (no surprise there) by giving impetus to technology by way of the ‘Digital India’ programme.
Turning to theme ‘health’ of the manifestos, the BJP also wants to aid endosulfan victims by establishing a rehabilitation centre with the required medical and other facilities. The Congress on the other hand has laid emphasis on those afflicted by addiction. Although both the parties have mentioned their desire to combat the drug menace in the district, the Congress has specified more concrete measure to achieve this goal. They have proposed to open de-addiction centres across the district. They have also proposed increasing the doctor to patient ratio and controlling the spread of communicable diseases.
To summarise, the priority of the BJP seems to be the development of tourism and agriculture in the district while the Congress is focusing on infrastructure development, IT/BT, health and law and order.
Though the manifestos are akin to a letter of intent, political parties have been rather lax in following through. Whichever party gets the opportunity to form the next government, we will see for sure whether or not the promises made will be fulfilled.
