Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed in his election speeches that the Congress manifesto contains the party's plans to snatch the wealth of people and distribute it among a select group. The Congress has taken the matter to the Election Commission, complaining that Modi's comments violate the Model Code of Conduct as they are “divisive, malicious and targeted a particular community”.
What does the Congress' manifesto say on wealth inequality?
The term 'redistribution' is not used anywhere in the manifesto. The introduction to the manifesto says, “Inequality between the rich on the one hand and the poor and middle classes on the other have increased sharply dealing a body blow to the goals of equality, equity, and social and economic justice.” It says the share of national income earned by India's top one per cent is today at its highest historical levels and is among the highest globally. “The rise of inequality has been particularly pronounced between 2014 and 2023.”
What does the Congress' manifesto propose to do in this regard?
Under the heading 'Economy', the manifesto says it is time for a re-set in the economic policy, and talks about various steps such as dealing with jobless growth, addressing inflation, tackling extreme poverty etc, and the list ends with “and the growing inequalities of income and wealth”.
The pledge that most directly deals with wealth inequality reads, “We will address the growing inequality of wealth and income through suitable changes in policies.”
Under the sub-head 'Welfare' in this section, the manifesto says welfare of all is the goal of all work and the creation of wealth. “Owing to the skewed policies of the BJP/NDA, the people of India are divided in economic terms. There is a small class of very rich, a substantial middle class, a large segment of people above the poverty line but not yet the middle class, and nearly 22 crore people who are poor.”
The party pledges that under a Congress government, the welfare of the poor will be the first charge on all government resources. “The Nav Sankalp Economic Policy will aim to build a fair, just and equal-opportunity economy and bring prosperity to all sections of the people,” it says.
What did Rahul Gandhi say when the manifesto was released?
Rahul Gandhi said the most important guarantee was of caste census, which will be an X-ray of the socio-economic conditions in the country. He said right now there are gross disparities in the distribution of power, wealth and resources in the country. He said once the Congress forms government, a caste census followed by a financial and institutional survey will be carried out for equal distribution of resources in the country.
The Congress insists its former party chief made no statement to the effect of a redistribution of wealth. It says he spoke about a socio-economic count of all the castes that would form the basis for formulation of policies to remove inequalities.