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April 02, 2007 22:45 IST
The Bhartiya Janata Party on Monday released its manifesto in Lucknow for the forthcoming state assembly, once again promising to he people the much debated Ram temple at Ayodhya.
"If we win this election with a clear cut majority, we will clear the decks for construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya by removing all hurdles in the path," party state chief Keshrinath and former Bharatiya Janata Party president Venkaiah Naidu told a press conference in Lucknow.
The 28-page printed document focuses substantially on an oblique revival of its Hindutva card.
The Hindutva dose includes assertion for making 'vande-mataram' compulsory in all educational institutions. Together with that, it also calls for compulsory 'yoga' and even 'surya namaskaar' as part of the daily curriculum in all schools. "The idea is to not only to promote mental and moral development of the students, but also to awaken the feeling of nationalism," Venkaiah Naidu told media.
Expressing its special concern for the three contentious shrines at Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi , the party proposes a huge 500-crore rupees development package for each of the three towns. Allahabad has been discreetly added to the list. "The focus will be on developing these four places as the ultimate destinations for religious tourism", Naidu emphasised.
While stressing that BJP believed in "treating all sections of society at par" and opposing "appeasement" of anyone, both Naidu and Tripathi talked about "bringing 'madrasas' in the mainstream of the state's education through their large-scale modernisation."
The manifesto makes all kinds of promises for the farmer, the downtrodden and the poor , besides of course offering 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies elections and 20 per cent quota for them in government jobs.
Significantly, it promises to bring the chief minister too under the purview of the Lok Ayukta.
The manifesto also proposes to scrap such chapters from text books which tend to "create misinformation about some of India's great leaders," without going into any specifics, it also talks about pulling out "objectionable content relating to Sikhs, Jains and certain other castes from text books."
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