TRS manifesto is not as impressive as Telangana movement

Hyderabad: Estimation of the budget for the listed manifestos would cost lakhs of crores. However, for the power projects itself, the budget would run into Rs 34,423 crore and the rest cannot be calculated now.

The manifesto of the TRS party has a mixed set of proposals as part of its future vision for the newly formed Telangana state. Any emerging economy ought to have massive investments in infrastructure as well as human resources. The manifesto does propose to make investments into power generation, irrigation, education and health, apart from investments for specifically targeted social categories. Although the fruits of these investments may have a longer gestation period, yet the wait is worth its while considering the fact that the sustainability of economic grow-th as well as determination of social standards of acceptable quality of life are determined to a large extent by these investments.

While per se these are welcome moves, however, the devil seems to be in the detail. The manifesto is a mix of democratic, populist,  corporate and big capital interests. While on the face of it, this manifesto could be seen as an assimilation of interests, it is likely to involve lot of internal contradictions.

The manifesto does not  make it clear as to what would be the options for raising the resources to meet the expenses, and whether the TRS would abide by an egalitarian approach even in raising the resources? In which case, the TRS as a government may have to face the risks of facing the ire of the corporate lobby and might be threatened with flight of capital to other regions.

On the whole, the manifesto has not been as inspiring as the Telangana movement has been,  and one wonders whose voice has ultimately found space in the manifesto and whose interest would ultimately be addressed in reality.