Tuesday, May 27, 2008

BJP Election Manifesto

The BJP still has a chance at the next elections. But the problem with them is that they also never learn from their mistakes. The more they try to act different, the more similar they become to Congress. They have still a chance and should in fact look at constuting a shadow cabinet from within their own party and the rest of the NDA partners. They should speak of policies that they would implement. They should, as we speak now, start a nationwide program for membership drives and funds for the next election. If they start a grass roots movement now, they have a huge chance of succeeding.But they need to be be clear on what they offer and how they go about doing it.They should pioneer a point based quota system and take a leaf from Mayawati on this.They should pioneer the introduction of coupone for people below the poverty line with banks delivering these coupons to people directlyThey should pioneer food for work programs where the work being done is of permanent nature and focuses on construction activities like building roads, schools, hospitals etc. in the rural areas. They should announce incentives to massively increase government employment but only in fields like police, security, intelligence, education.They should look at integrating forest dwelling tribals with the development of forests. Incentives and schemes should be focused on that ensure protection of the tiger and the development of the tribals living on those forests. These are not mutually exclusive. If their focus stays on the economy, jobs, security and education, then with the kind of image they already have, they can come back to power very successfully.
But then the big question is whether they are ready and more important whether India's time has really come?