New Delhi, Apr 5 (IANS): Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, on Friday, released the party’s ‘Paanch Nyay’ manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Releasing the manifesto, the party said that it will conduct a nationwide caste census to “identify the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions.”

The party also said that it will work for the upliftment of weaker sections of society with its ‘Paanch Nyay and Twenty-Five Guarantee’ focus.

The party released the manifesto in the presence of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other top leaders of the party including P. Chidambaram, K. C. Venugopal and others.

While launching the manifesto, the party also drew a parallel between UPA and NDA eras and claimed that the former surpassed the latter in terms of economic growth.

P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister in UPA government, slammed the government for "slowing" down the economy, compared to the UPA era and also accused it of diminishing democratic institutions.

“Economy grew at 8.5 per cent in UPA’s first term and average growth stood at 7.5 per cent in 10 years of Manmohan Singh government. However, under BJP government, the economy saw growth of 6.7 per cent and average growth has been 5.8 per cent over the past 10 years of Modi government,” Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram further stated that the worst fears expressed by Congress in 2019, have come true under BJP-led government.

“What we had predicted in 2019 has come to pass in 2024. We had said freedom will be restricted, that has happened; we had said institutions will be demeaned and that has happened; we had said that weaker sections will be denied their rights and privileges, that has happened,” Chidambaram said.

“We had said that democracy will be diminished and we will inexorably move toward autocracy, today we are described the same way by global thinkers,” he added.