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Samajwadi party manifesto : Wooing minorities |
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Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party has vowed to change the name of the country to Bharat if voted to power and said it would throw open for worship religious places under the Archaeological Survey of India. In its manifesto released last week, the Samajwadi party pointed out what it claimed was “a serious flaw” in the Indian Constitution and promised speedy rectification once the party comes to power at the Centre.
Mulayam Singh, who believes his party would play a crucial role at the Centre by winning 60 seats from Uttar Pradesh, slammed rival parties for ignoring the basic needs of the backward sections. “Unlike other parties which churn out a political epic in manifestos, we are focused on the country’s marginal people and development. We believe, without their development, no true development can take place.”
In an attempt to woo Muslims, at least 15 of the 19 promises made under the head “Social Change” are aimed at the community. They include provisions for reservation in jobs in medical and technical institutions, promotion of Urdu, schemes to remove illiteracy and reconstitution of the Shanti Suraksha Dal, a crack force to deal with communal violence.
The party also talked about “non-interference” in Muslim personal laws, ensuring safety of all religious places and a “total revision of all textbooks in which a deliberate tampering of pro-BJP historians led to distortions in historical facts about Muslims”.
However, the party appears to have soft-pedalled on the Ram temple issue. “On Ayodhya there is no other solution except that emanating from the judiciary. We plan to stick to the court order,” Mulayam Singh said.
The Samajwadi chief said he was not in favour of over-stressing Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin. “A woman is not judged by how and where she was born but what she is proposing to do for the country,” he said.
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