Anand Sharma chooses his words carefully

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 25

Former Union minister and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma today said the election manifesto of the Congress, prepared and released before the 2012 Assembly elections in the state, was not that of any individual but of the party.

“The manifesto was prepared by the election manifesto committee, headed by me. It was released in Peterhoff in the presence of Virbhadra Singh, Kaul Singh Thakur, Vidya Stokes and other senior leaders, so it is a document of the Congress and not of any individual,” remarked Sharma during a media interaction here. He said he would discuss the issue with the Chief Minister and talks would be held at the party level to assess how all promises made in the manifesto could be fulfilled.

Sharma even went to the extent of stating that the Congress wanted to create job avenues for more youth and would like to fulfil the promise of granting unemployment allowance to the youth. “The Congress, in its election manifesto in Punjab and Uttarakhand where the polls were held recently, has promised unemployment allowance to the educated jobless youth,” he stated.

Adopting a very cautious approach while giving his views on the unemployment allowance, Sharma said this was an issue which would be decided within the party forum and not on a public platform. However, his remarks have made it more than obvious that he too is not happy about the decision of the state government of not honouring the commitment made at the time of elections.

“I agree that we need to improve the coordination between the government and the party and we will sit together work towards making it better,” he said when his attention was drawn towards the remarks made by the CM on the HPCC appointees and their stature.

The HPCC has convened a meeting on February 27 where discussions will be held on the issue of unemployment allowance. Depending on the feedback that the party gets from its leaders and workers, the issue will be raised with the Chief Minister. Bali will hold a youth and women rally at Dharamsala on March 25 to highlight the plight of the educated unemployed youth.

The issue of non-fulfilment of the election promise of unemployment allowance seems to have divided the Congress leadership with Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Transport Minister GS Bali openly differing with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The CM had stated that no state government was in a position to bear the burden of granting the allowance to the jobless youth and his regime had devised a better mechanism of providing a Skill Development Allowance which would make them employable.