Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa yesterday underscored her prime ministerial aspirations with a populist Lok Sabha poll manifesto promising freebies like laptops, mixer grinders and fans as well as goats, sheep and cows to the poor.
Her AIADMK also promised free bicycles, text books, and fixed deposits to students, and solar powered homes and four gram gold as a marriage gift for poor girls. Listing out the measures being implemented in the state under various schemes for different sections of the society, the manifesto said: “As a measure of human resource development, the AIADMK government has given utmost importance to the education and health sectors.
“At the same time, importance is also being given to social security. The AIADMK will ensure the implementation of the above laudable schemes at the all-India level.
“We have spelt out many policies and promises to implement many schemes and aims not only for the development of Tamil Nadu but also for the progress of the entire nation,” Jayalalithaa told reporters here.
Incidentally, the AIADMK government was taken to the Supreme Court by a city-based advocate S Subramaniam Balaji for creating private assets out of public money by giving freebies like laptops, grinders, laptops and others.
Last July, the apex court asked the poll panel to frame guidelines to discourage political parties from promising freebies in their election manifestos as it shakes the root of free and fair elections and disturbs level playing field for the candidates.
On the political front, the AIADMK declared its faith in the “values of secularism in Indian society” and “cooperative federalism”. The manifesto also promises to overturn some of the economic policies followed by the federal government much to the liking of the two Left parties with which the AIADMK has aligned for the polls. Terming the federal food security scheme as half-baked, AIADMK promised to take measures to replace it with a universal public distribution system.
The AIADMK said it will ensure there is no divestment of shares in public sector undertakings and it will would work towards completely stopping the process of privatisation.
On foreign policy, the party said long-standing border disputes with neighbouring countries should be resolved but stressed that foreign policy “should not hurt the interests of the states in the country”. IANS
