Venkaiah Naidu Says Parties Should Treat Their Manifestos like 'Bhagwad Geeta'

Gandhinagar: A day after CJI J S Khehar said political parties must be held accountable for poll promises, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said the parties should treat their manifestos like "Bhagwad Geeta".

"Political parties should treat their manifestos as Bhagwad Geeta. It should be treated as a holy book. You need to do things that you promise," he said while addressing a function organised by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI) at Mahatma Mandir here.

Naidu was here to attend the 'CREDAI National Investiture Ceremony -2017'. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and other dignitaries of the real estate sector were also present at the event. "I agree with our CJI's views on pre-poll promises. Some political parties make irresponsible statements during polls.

At the end of the day, parties will have to seek votes from people based on their performance in every five years. That check is already there," he said. "People always have an option to keep a check on political parties by voting for only those who fulfill their promises," Naidu said.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI), J S Khehar, had yesterday said, "Now a days manifestos have become a mere piece of paper, for this political parties have to be made accountable." Talking to reporters at the Ahmedabad airport, ahead of his address here, Naidu said the government would not mind if a law is enacted to ensure implementation of poll manifestos.

"We are OK if some law is enacted in this regard. Otherwise, people always have a chance to chose parties based on their performance after every five years," he said. The Union Minister also opined that general elections along with assembly and local body polls should be held simultaneously. "It would be better for the people if we hold general, assembly and local body polls simultaneously.

Today, we have to hold such elections every month or two months or in a year. These polls just keep coming. Holding polls simultaneously will help us in focusing on our work," said Naidu. On Triple Talaq, he urged the members of the Muslim community to come forward to abolish this system and to give justice to their women.

"Though Triple Talaq is not allowed, there are people who are doing injustice to Muslim women. Just like Hindu society has abolished social evils of child marriage, dowry and Sati, Muslims need to come forward and engage in deliberations to put an end to Triple Talaq," Naidu said.

During the event, CREDAI president Jaxay Shah launched 375 affordable housing projects with an investment of over Rs 70,000 crores. "These projects are spread across India and involve development of over 8.60 crore square feet of land and over 20.60 crore sq ft of construction to build more than 2.37 lakh houses of affordable category," Shah said.