Nagaland polls: BJP announces free trip to Jerusalem, Congress gives subsidies

With the onset of the Nagaland polls in the country, both the national parties BJP and Congress, who had released their manifestos on Friday, claimed to give the best to the people of the state.

BJP, in its manifesto, announced that it would give a free trip to Jerusalem to 50 of its lucky draw winners, while the Congress has claimed that it would give subsidised trip to Jerusalem to the people.

The Nagaland Baptist Church, which has already made its way into Nagaland’s electoral politics, has asked the people to be aware of any attack on the Christian community.

The Naga People’s Front did not address any religion in its manifesto but speaks extensively about a solution to the Naga talks and improving the state’s failing infrastructure.

Under the section of ‘Senior Citizens’ in its manifesto, BJP’s Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju and Nirmala Sitharaman promised to ‘set up a senior citizen board’ to select 50 people through a lucky draw for a ‘free trip to the Holy Land of Jerusalem’.

According to the manifesto of the Congress party, ‘By an act of the state government, a board will be established to facilitate minorities to visit the Holy Land (Jerusalem) at a subsidized cost.’

Congress, which is contesting 18 seats in the upcoming elections, said, “The BJP is the political arm of the RSS and the Hindutva brotherhood driven by a devilish resilience to persecute all minorities. The single objective of this nexus of evil is to create a Hindu Raj. The NPF has pledged their soul to this force of evil to loot and plunder Nagaland.”

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The BJP manifesto, in response to both Congress and the Baptist Church, said, “The BJP is a pro-people, people-centric, pro-active development centred secular party with its ideological principles of “Integral Humanism” as propounded by its philosopher and guide Shri Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and… stand strong and committed for the harmonious co-existence of all communities and faiths within the country and with the global community.”

On the Naga political issue, the BJP sided Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s signing of the Framework Agreement of 2015, while the NPF said that it remained committed to the realisation of a “common Naga homeland and shared Naga future through integration of contiguous Naga inhabited areas.”

Meanwhile, the Congress had said Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi initiated discussions, while former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made it a “national issue and offered for negotiation without any precondition.”