BJP manifesto out today, plans to return temples to pvt trusts

Handing temples in Tamil Nadu back to private bodies and removing government control over them is one of the BJP’s main promises for the coming election. Its manifesto, to be released on Thursday, also promises to waive cooperative loans to farmers and provide free education to scheduled caste children and forward caste students from below-poverty-line families.

Chairman of the election manifesto committee and BJP national secretary H Raja said students in government-run Tamil medium schools would get an opportunity to study a third Indian language, not necessarily Hindi or Sanskrit. “In places like Krishnagiri, for instance, students can choose Telugu,” he said.

Reviving an anti-terrorism law for the state to deal with threats to national security is also part of the manifesto, he said. Describing the manifesto as a “vision document shorn of freebies”, he said it would be released by Union minister for shipping, highways and road transport Nitin Gadkari at Krishna Gana Sabha in T Nagar, where Raja is contesting. This is a departure from the previous practice of launching the manifesto at the state party headquarters.