BJP manifesto: tough on terror, sops for poor

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its Lok Sabha election manifesto on Friday in New Delhi promising to deal with the scourge of terror with an iron hand and also announced a host of populist measures if voted to power.

"Our priority will be to tackle terrorists both inside and outside India sternly. We will bring a better law like POTA to handle terror," said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad while releasing the manifesto.

He also said that India's intelligence agencies including the Research and Analysis Wing and Intelligence Bureau would be overhauled so that they are able to deal with terror threats in a better way.

The party also wooed the poor and middle class with Prasad announcing said that they will provide 35 kgs of rice at Rs 2 per kg for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

The promise is a move to counter to Congress' offer of rice at Rs 3 per kg. BJP also promised to make available wheat at Rs 3.5 per kg.

Reaching out to farmers, the BJP said it will waive off all current loans and provide fresh loans at four per cent interest rate. Every school-going girl child belonging to BPL families will be provided by a bicycle, the manifesto said.

Salaried class has been promised that income tax exemption limit will be raised to Rs 3 lakh per annum. For women and senior citizen, the limit would be Rs 3.5 lakh per annum.

Prasad also announced that all defence forces and paramilitary personnel will be exempted from income tax.

The party seems to have put its Hindutva issue on the backburner with issues like rebuilding of Ram temple at Ayodhya and abolishing Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir finding a mention at the fag end of the manifesto.

"The BJP is committed to construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. We'll not anyone harm the Ram Setu." said Prasad.

However, party's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani announced that the BJP will strive for Ram Rajya in the country. Adavani said that the BJP believes in creating an ideal world and it would be possible only through the efforts of the saffron party.

He also said that politics in Indian was bipolar and there was no place for the Third Front.

The party also promised development initiatives to tackle the problem of rising population with Manifesto Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi saying, "Population control is also on our agenda. We'll make sure the population control programmes are non-coercive and gender sensitive. We will encourage people to be part of these programmes."

Many senior BJP leaders including Advani, President Rajnath Singh and Joshi were present on the occasion.