During a brainstorming session organsied by the Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies (SDRS) today, the leaders of Congress, BJP and CPIM assured that the rights and opportunities of the disabled will be kept in mind while
framing the manifestoes for the upcoming Assembly polls.
Though a consensus could not emerge on how the subject should be treated in their respective manifestoes, member of the state secretariat of the CPIM Tikender Panwar emphasised on the need for a macro-level policy to deal with this issue. He said, “Individual efforts of voluntary organisations alone will not help; the subject needs a bigger policy like the ones in health and education sectors and we would advocate it in our manifesto.”
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Kuldeep Rathaur and BJP general secretary Khushi Ram Balnahata denied making disability a political issue. But, at the same time, talking in so many words, both agreed on “adding some element on this subject in their manifestoes.” Both are members of the manifesto committee of their parties.
Rathaur said, “Whatever may be the outcome, but one positive move is that disability will be discussed for the first time in the Congress manifesto committee.” Though he kept emphasizing that Congress has implemented many schemes for the disabled, he, however, tried to evade some issues by saying that the implementation has not been good because of communication gap with the bureaucracy.
On the suggestion of SDRS chairman Ajai Srivastava, Rathaur agreed that the Congress would contemplate on forming a separate wing of the disabled in the party. Balnahata said, “This issue should not be linked with votes, it needs a sensitive treatment.” When one of the representatives of voluntary organisation working for the disabled asked him, “Is it because the votes of the disabled are not much in the state,” he denied it. “This subject can better be related to sensitisation than politics,” he said.