Looking back at issues and promises, and ones that got people talking
Jaipur: As campaigning for the Rajasthan Assembly elections came to an end on Thursday and the state went to the polls on Saturday, there were two kinds of guarantees being discussed in the ‘desert state’; one is the seven guarantees of the Congress, which the grand old party promised ahead of the polls, and the other is Narendra Modi’s guarantee, which the Prime Minister had spoken of in almost all his election rallies in across the state.
The Congress in Rajasthan has given seven guarantees that include Rs 10,000 every year to the female head of the family under the Griha Lakshmi Yojana guarantee, procuring cow dung at Rs 2 per kg under the Gowdhan guarantee, giving free laptops and tablets to first-year government college students, free insurance of up to Rs 15 lakh for the family affected by natural disaster, giving access to English-medium schools, giving gas cylinders at as low as Rs 500, and promising to return the old pension scheme for government employees.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Modi has been speaking of Modi’s guarantee.
Prime Minister Modi has promised that those engaged in corruption will have to go to jail, those found accused in alleged paper leak scam will be dealt with iron hand and so on.
Meanwhile, the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and Chiranjeevi Scheme as promised by Congress have made a long-lasting impact. The OPS impact is far and wide and has forced the BJP to form a committee at the central level which is exploring how to “lure” government employees who have been influenced by the Congress’ OPS promise.
In fact, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the government would deliberate on restoring the OPS once the committee constituted for the purpose would submit its report.
In 2022, the Congress-ruled states of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan announced the restoration of the Defined Pension Benefit Scheme or the OPS (DPBS/OPS). Trade unions and several employee organisations have been protesting in large numbers for the restoration of the OPS.
Shah, while replying to a question on restoration of the OPS at a press conference in Jaipur, said, “We have constituted a committee to study the OPS. As soon as the committee submits its report, we will deliberate on it.”
Responding to Shah’s statement, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot posted on X, “While Congress guarantees OPS, BJP offers a committee. This is the difference between Congress and BJP, between guarantee and committee. Shah ji, we need a commitment, not a committee. We are giving a guarantee now that the OPS has been implemented, we will make it permanent by framing a law…”
Against these promises being made by Congress, Prime Minister Modi in his recently held rally, said that his guarantee outweighs all “false promises” made by the Congress. He also said that his guarantee begins from where the hope from Congress for the welfare of the poor and the public ends. He asked the people of Rajasthan to wipe out the Ashok Gehlot government to free the state from oppression and corruption.
Besides these guarantees, there are many issues which are being discussed at length, such as the paper leak and lawlessness.
More than 2 lakh cases of harassment of women have been registered in the state, 19 rapes take place every day and 22 per cent of rape cases occur in Rajasthan alone. “Yet Gehlot as Chief Minister made no difference and the government failed to maintain law and order and could not follow its Rajdharma. Due to this, women in the state are seen united against Gehlot and stand with Prime Minister Modi,” said BJP state president C.P. Joshi.
“The Gehlot government, which had promised loan waivers to farmers, could not waive the loans of even five per cent of the farmers in five years, on the contrary, auctioned the land of more than 19,000 farmers. The farmers of the state stood firmly with the BJP, due to which it is certain that the BJP will come to power in the state with a huge majority,” he added.
He also said that the teacher recruitment exam paper leak case “has links” to the state government and that the Enforcement Directorate investigation will reveal many secrets.
Meanwhile, veteran Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said, “A scheme like Chief Minister Chiranjeevi Insurance Scheme is not implemented anywhere in the country, under which the people of the state got free treatment of up to Rs 25 lakh. This scheme will now be implemented to provide free treatment up to Rs 50 lakh. There is no such scheme in any state of the country.”
Congress government waived off the loans for the farmers and now after coming to power, it has promised that loans up to Rs 2 lakh will be given interest-free from the cooperative banks of the state and a law will be brought on MSP to benefit the farmers, he added.
“Old pension scheme was implemented in Rajasthan and Congress won the elections in Himachal on the basis of the same Rajasthan model. Congress has promised in Rajasthan that if the government is formed, 10 lakh youth will be provided employment which includes 4 lakh government jobs. Modi government has not fulfilled the promise of providing two crore jobs every year, nor Rs 15 lakh has been credited to anyone’s account till date,” the Congress leader said.
He further said that “no announcement” of the Modi government has been fulfilled. “Neither has the income of farmers been doubled nor has the promise of providing houses to all by 2021 been fulfilled. The BJP has a record of not fulfilling its announcements while the Congress has fulfilled whatever it has promised”.
Amid these claims, it is clear that the most discussed scheme is OPS which has made a strong impact. However, jobs and lawlessness remain the issues on which promises were made but have not been fulfilled by both parties.