UPA means Unfulfilled Promises & Agenda - Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Broken Promises – UPA 2004-2009

Promise : The UPA government will enact a model law to deal with communal violence and encourage each state to adopt that law to generate faith and confidence in minority communities
Performance : The government dropped the idea of enacting a model law meant for each state to adopt separately. Instead , in 2005, it introduced a bill that applied to all as it conferred overriding powers on the center to declare a riot –affected areas as ‘Communally disturbed’ and assume responsibility for restoring law and order . The bill was a non-starter.
The communal violence (Prevention , control and rehabilitation of victims) bill wasn’t passed as the government could not hammer out a consensus on such a departure from the existing federal arrangement .
Promise : Judicial reforms will be given fresh momentum:
Performance : Despite the growing incidence of corruption in the higher judiciary , the government failed to convert a bill pending since 2006 into a law providing for a statutory machinery for judicial accountability . The Judges ( inquiry) bill carried a little credibility as it restrained the existing in house procedure without allowing any outsider to have a say in the probe
Promise : The Lok Pal bill will be enacted into low
Performance : The government failed to come up with a bill even after its Administrative Reforms commission recommended in 2007 that the proposed Ombudsman on political corruption be given constitutional status and be called ‘Rashtriya Lokayukta’ instead of Lok Pal
Promise : The UPA will take lead in introducing legislation for one third reservation for women in the Vidhan Sabhas and Lok Sabha
Performance: All that the government did was to introduce a bill with much fanfare in the Rajya Sabha in May 2008. Although , most of the major parties ( Congress, BJP and the Left) are ostensibly in favour , the government never got around to putting it to vote in parliament )
Promise : Complete legal equality for women in all spheres will be made a practical reality, especially by removing discriminatory legislation and by enacting new legislation that gives women , for instance , equal rights of ownerships of assets like houses and land
Performance : Other than enacting the law against domestic violence ,which was promised separately in the CMP, the government did not come up with any bill related to this long winded commitment of moving towards gender equality in all respects
Promise : The UPA will bring constitutional amendment to ensure that democratic , autonomous and a professional functioning of cooperatives
Performance : Despite holding elaborate consultations , the government failed to reach the stage of introducing a bill to amend the constitution
Promise: Labour laws other than the industrial Disputes Act , that created an inspector Raj will be re-examined and procedures harmonised and streamlined .
Performance : Thanks to pressure from the left for most of its tenure , the government did not dare tinker with the inspector Raj prevailing in labour laws.
Courtesy: Times of India , March 08, 2009.
For a detailed Congress Score Card 2004-2009. Please check the earlier Blog wherein , I have quoted the congress manifesto of 2004 verbatim along with failure to deliver on the promises .