Samajwadi Party promises to tax "ultra rich" in manifesto
The Samajwadi Party on Friday released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections in which it spoke about equality for all. To achieve the same (?), SP said it would levy a tax of 2% on the upper caste elites, whose total household income is more than Rs. 2.5 crore. This move will eradicate poverty, claimed SP. Clearly, appeasement politics trumped illogical taxes.
The 16-page document was released by party president Akhilesh Yadav. The booklet read: Samajik nyay se mahaparivartan: Ek nayi disha, ek nayi ummeed. The manifesto also carried the words of Ram Manohar Lohia: The fight against poverty is a farce till there is discrimination on the basis of caste and gender. Mulayam Singh Yadav was inspired by Lohia's beliefs when he founded SP.
SP hit out at upper castes in the first page of the manifesto which was titled "Enough is enough". "The elite and the rich dismiss us as power hungry. These are all lies designed to maintain and perpetuate oppressive power structures to benefit the few," the document read. In India, the richest 10% held 60% of the wealth, while half of the population just had 8% of resources, the document read.
"We propose financing this increase in social transfers by imposing an additional 2% tax on the total wealth of households owning more than Rs 2.5 crore (about 0.1% of the Indian households). This works out to 1.1% of the GDP," the manifesto read.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Akhilesh said under his rule only a handful of industrialists benefited, but SP will change that. He claimed SP was collecting data to conclude how many farmers committed suicide due to poor schemes of the Centre. He also demanded that the caste census should be made public to frame better policies. Akhilesh also slammed demonetization and GST.
Akhilesh also demanded a full farm loan waiver. "There have been farm loan waiver announcements, however, it has been seen that eligibility criteria are so tough that most farmers do not benefit," he added.
SP also spoke about women empowerment through a "social education movement" to ensure girls don't need to be protected. If it comes to power, SP will give Rs. 3,000/month to women of poor households. The party said it will move away from "pseudo-nationalism" and focus on national security. "We propose to raise an Ahir Armoured Regiment and a Gujarati Infantry Regiment," the party said.
Since its inception, SP has spoken for the rights of Dalits and needy. This time the manifesto didn't mention "minorities" but SP had no qualms in painting "upper caste rich" as the evil ones. SP's manifesto screams freebies and it doesn't mention how tax-paying public will be affected. In its quest of appeasement, SP gave little regard to anything else.
