New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party has successfully implemented all its promises made in its 2014 election manifesto, except those that needed constitutional amendments for which the party required a majority in the Rajya Sabha, a BJP think tank has claimed. According to a report prepared after four months of study of various government schemes in the social sector and in the field of science and technology, the think tank, Public Policy Research Center (PPRC), has said that the BJP delivered on its promises of social empowerment with schemes like Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra Scheme and Saubhagya Yojana, among others.
Unveiling “This is how BJP Walks the Talk”—a report card of the ruling party—BJP vice president Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said that the BJP believed in empowerment and not entitlement. The focus is now on delivering, he said.
According to the report, loans worth Rs 17 crore have been provided under the Mudra Scheme, 35 crore bank accounts have been opened under Jan Dhan Yojana and three crore houses have been electrified under the Saubhagya scheme.
“The only goal perhaps which the BJP has not been able to meet was Article 370—basically those which need constitutional interventions which we cannot do without a majority in the Rajya Sabha. Other than that, I think we have robustly managed to achieve all our goals,” said Sahasrabuddhe, who is also the director of PPRC.
He also said that the BJP-led government was successful in changing the “leftist mentality” of having a law for everything in the country.
He cited the examples of Right to Education and Food Security Bill to claim that these legislations failed to serve the original purpose as they were not practical and effective on the ground.
“The RTE, which was formed after so much discussion, had to be amended in merely five years…The informality of education has been almost finished. As per the parameters of classrooms laid under RTE, the concept of mobile schools in remote villages has been rendered illegal. They made the Act in a hurry, it didn’t seem well thought-out,” he said.
“Government initiatives like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Digital India etc witnessed an unprecedented national energy focused on building a new and vibrant India. The primary focus of the government’s intervention has been on entitlement to empowerment, making people and communities self-reliant and enabling equal opportunities to realise full potential. Schemes such as providing smoke free lives to women under the Ujjwala Yojana, free treatment to over 20 lakh people in mere 200 days under PMJAY, providing homes to crores of people under PM Awas Yojana, among others, have improved the lives of lakhs of people in the country,” the report said.