The 7-phase, 17th Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11, 2019 and continue until May 19, 2019. Five major national parties – Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janta Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India and All India Trinamool Congress have released their manifestos1, outlining party priorities and future course of action the parties promise to take if voted to power. At of the time of publication of this post, Aam Aadmi Party has not released its manifesto. We will update this blog as and when it is published. Acknowledging the indispensable role of digital technology in society and its capacity to impact our human rights, most party manifestos have touched upon digital rights.
We studied these manifestos and have captured promises made by these five national parties on digital rights. Kindly refer to the following table for a comparison:
- 1. CPI (M) Election Manifesto, https://cpim.org/pressbriefs/cpim-election-manifesto-17th-lok-sabha;
CPI Election Manifesto, https://www.communistparty.in/blog/election-manifesto-of-the-communist-party-of-india-for-the-17th-lok-sabha-elections-2019;
TMC Election Manifesto, http://aitcofficial.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/TMC-MANIFESTO-Eng.pdf;
INC Election Manifesto, https://manifesto.inc.in/en/index.html
BJP Election Manifesto, http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5798075-Bjp-Election-2019-Manifesto-English.html
