Party drafts own anti-corruption pitch to counter PM’s offensive, vows to probe charges against defectors

New Delhi: Alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal — the Congress party’s principal plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections — stood reduced to a single mention in the party’s 48-page 2024 manifesto released on Friday.

‘Time to reset economic policy’

The Congress on Friday slammed the BJP’s “legacy of jobless growth” and said it was time for a “reset” as it pitched for a ‘Nav Sankalp Economic Policy’, with a focus on jobs

The party said it would replace the GST laws enacted by the BJP/NDA government with GST 2.0 and come up with a direct taxes code for transparency and equity in direct taxes system

The then Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s “Chowkidar chor hai” attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the purchase of Rafale jets from France had failed to pay electoral dividends in the 2019 elections. In a stormy introspection meeting of the Congress Working Committee following the party’s loss, many party leaders had pointed to the party’s Rafale-centred “personalised” campaign against Modi as having boomeranged.

Congress’ 2024 manifesto steers clear of any elaborate references to the fighter aircraft deal and suffices to say in a special “Anti-Corruption” segment of the document.

The 2024 manifesto says: “In the last 10 years, we have seen that several measures taken by the BJP/NDA government were actually a cloak for corruption. Some examples are demonetisation, the Rafale deal, Pegasus spyware, and the Electoral Bonds scheme. Congress will probe these dubious deals and schemes and bring to law those who made illegal gains through these measures.”

The Congress has drafted its own anti-corruption plan to counter PM Modi’s persistent attacks on the Opposition INDIA bloc leaders over alleged graft. The manifesto says the party, if elected, would probe all accused defectors from the party who have been allowed to go “scot-free” by the BJP.

“The BJP has turned out to be a giant washing machine. Accused in registered cases who joined the BJP were allowed to escape the law. Allegations against such persons will be revived and investigated,” the manifesto says, also incorporating promises to carry out “complete investigations into the Electoral Bonds Scam, reckless sale of public assets, PM CARES scam, repeated Intelligence failures at the highest levels and corruption in major defence deals.” The party came down heavily on the ruling BJP-led NDA coalition for allowing “known offenders to leave the country”.

“The circumstances under which these offenders were allowed to leave the country will be probed and all scammers and their accomplices will be brought before the law,” the party’s manifesto said.

(With Agency Inputs)