Congress manifesto may take rights-based path

New Delhi: A 100-day guaranteed urban employment programme with an opportunity to earn up to Rs 10,000 per month, a universal healthcare scheme, no strings attached loan for students to complete higher education, improved minimum support price and a complete farm loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh are some of the promises that the Congress is set to make in the run-up to the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Taking forward a rights-based approach followed by the successive Congress-led UPA governments, the party is likely to promise right to health, right to employment in urban areas and right to higher education in the crucial Lok Sabha elections.

The manifesto, which is expected to be released on Thursday, is likely to have Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s promise of minimum income guarantee scheme. Like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Congress is likely to promise an employment guarantee for the urban youth. The scheme is likely to promise a minimum income of Rs 4,000 and an opportunity to increase it up to Rs 10,000.


Instead of burdening the exchequer with an unemployment dole, the party is likely to promise employment for the educated unemployed youth by involving them in services like delivering water and electricity bills, meter reading, opening of small citizen service centres and collection of property tax. For each bill collected or delivered the small fee given to a private contractor would go to the unemployed youth.

Another major promise is likely to be right to higher education. The Congress is likely to promise that students in universities are the responsibility of the state and nobody would be allowed to drop out for inability to pay fee. In case a student cannot pay the tuition fee, he would be able to take an easy no strings attached loan or given a grace period of a few years to pay the fee.

The promises targeting the youth stem from the realisation that this constituency had voted overwhelmingly for Narendra Modi in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Courting this segment of 18-25 years, the party’s manifesto is likely to promise doubling the education budget, filling up of vacancies in universities and a students’ rights commission for addressing grievances.

A right to health is likely to be promised through a universal healthcare scheme. This would give an opportunity to every individual to walk into a hospital and avail treatment. This would be different from the BJP government’s Ayushman Bharat programme, which according to the feedback from the Congress-ruled states does not use the present network of primary healthcare centres to its capacity.

The Congress is likely to follow the 2009 model on farm distress promising a complete loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh. Aware of the fiscal burden of this promise, the party is likely to follow different parameters for deciding on beneficiaries in states depending on prevalent agrarian conditions.

It would also improve on minimum support price for wheat and paddy.