New Delhi: The Congress party made it a point to addresses the needs of the LGBTQIA community, apart from other significant social issues, in its manifesto that has created quite a stir in the political landscape just days ahead of the first phase polling.

Besides job opportunities, eradication of poverty, amending significant laws, the party promises to deliver on social justice. It has ensured an entire section for LGBTQIA+ matters in the manifesto.

It promises to withdraw the pending Transgender Bill and direct gender sensitivity training in all government offices.

It states: “Congress recognises the sexual diversity among people and promises equality and equal protection of the laws to people with different sexual identities.”

“Congress promises to ensure the effective implementation of the judgment in the Navtej Singh Johar case. We will protect the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community”, the first point in the section read.

“We will immediately withdraw the Transgender Bill, 2018, pending in Parliament”, read the second point. It elaborated that Congress will introduce a Bill that will be consistent with the judgment in the NALSA case. The new Bill will be drafted in consultation with the LGBTQIA+ community.

“We will direct that gender sensitivity training, especially for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, be made mandatory in all government departments and organisations including the Armed Forces and the Police Forces,” the party promised in the manifesto.

With hardly ten days left for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019, the Congress has released an extensive electoral manifesto catering to wide-ranging issues. The party claimed that the document is not merely an electoral manifesto but is the “voice of the people of the country” and has been drafted by taking public opinion.