BJP offers tax cuts, tough Pakistan policy

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised low taxes and interest rates to revive a slowing economy and a tough posture on Pakistan in an election manifesto on Friday aimed at boosting its poll ratings.
The BJP, India's main Hindu-nationalist opposition party, also promised to retrieve Indian money illegally stashed abroad, generate employment through massive infrastructure projects and give cheaper farm loans to cushion Indians from the global financial crisis.
It said it would cut housing interest rates, give tax exemption to citizens above the age of 60 and also waive personal income tax for hundreds of thousands of defence personnel and pensioners.
'We are giving a message to our voters that if you give us an opportunity then whatever we do we will do with honesty,' the party's prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani said.
The BJP said India will resume peace talks with Pakistan only after Islamabad dismantled the 'terrorist infrastructure' on its soil. 'Without that there can be no comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan,' spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The party has accused the ruling Congress party in the past of being soft on national security, sharpening the criticism in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in November blamed on a Pakistan-based guerrilla group.
The BJP-led opposition alliance trails in most opinion polls for the month-long election beginning on April 13 and is struggling to find allies in potentially swing states.
Its principal battle is with the ruling left-of-centre Congress-led coalition in the staggered election running from April 16 to May 13.
Votes will be counted on May 16 and most analysts predict that smaller regional parties will hold the balance of power after the election.
POPULIST
Announcing a raft of populist measures, the BJP proposed farm loans at an interest rate of four percent and a ban on foreign direct investment in retail to help domestic trade.
It also threatened retaliation against moves by countries to discourage hiring of Indian workers abroad by imposing visa restrictions.