Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 21
While the AAP impact on the SAD manifesto is hard to miss, it also appears to be a balancing act between two schools of thought, one represented by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the other by Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal. Taking a cue from AAP, the SAD manifesto declares: “Punjab is now the first state in the country to embrace a culture of governance in which the citizen is the king”.
With AAP attacking corruption, the SAD has declared that it is committed to providing a clean, transparent, responsive and accountable administration.
Responding to AAP's criticism of the VIP culture, the SAD says it is committed to "creating an environment in which every citizen feels and is treated as a VIP." It also talks of effective measures to check corruption and black money.
The use of a strong words against the Congress point to the CM's hand in shaping the manifesto. Badal has always had the Congress as his first target. The manifesto says: “Successive Congress governments at the Centre and in Punjab treated the state almost as a colony and its brave and patriotic people as subjects and systematically looted and discriminated against them”.
When contacted, the primary author of the manifesto and SAD general secretary, Harcharan Bains, said: “Panthic agenda is the foundation of SAD's political ideology and the manifesto has been built on it”.
The SAD has devoted a full chapter to Congress-bashing. It has raised the issues of non-transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas to Punjab, denial of big projects, discrimination against the Punjabi language and Delhi riots.
Reflecting Sukhbir’s school of thought, the manifesto talks of express ways, introducing the metro in cities, more domestic flights, recreational parks, superfast trains, IT, medical and education hubs and governance reforms.
Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com
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