Insane Electoral Freebies – Mockery of Economic Prudence

 

‘Always sacrifice economic sense if it wins a few more votes. That logic drives competitive politics in India, spurring myopic measures that inflict long-term damage. Too many elections are dominated by three issues- subsidies, job reservations and communalism,’ Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, wrote in Times of India, Mumbai edition dated 5 December, 2021.

 Senseless doling out of freebies in Indian politics is ever increasing and expanding very fast, especially in the last decade. Almost every political party is promising some kind of freebies to various categories of voters.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received phenomenal support from the Delhi electorate during the last election and came to power. This exceptional performance was mainly attributed to making electricity free for the consumers in Delhi up to 200 units per household, plus a 50% subsidy for consumption between 200 and 500 units. Now the party has promised 300 units of free power to households in Punjab if elected in the 2022 election. AAP has further promised to transfer Rs. 1000 per month to the account of every woman aged 18 or above. AAP has also promised to offer free public transport ride to all women in Delhi.

Punjab congress chief minister countered AAP promise by slashing the power tariff by Rs.3 / unit, benefiting almost 7 million household consumers at an extra cost of Rs. 3316 crore per year to the exchequer. Presently Punjab’s total subsidy, including farm subsidy stands at Rs. 14,000 crore. Punjab is battling severe unemployment and is reeling under massive debt.

 

This increased phenomena of gifting freebies for the last so many decades has changed generally hard working population to expect more and more from the corrupt politicians, who will go to any extent to garner votes to grab power and then loot by dubious means. Political parties justify freebies claiming that it is nothing but social justice and it is done to neutralize the earlier injustice. But, the wisdom prevails upon every right thinking citizen of this country that a balance is required between welfare politics and cheap gimmicks of populism.

It could be the DMK founder C N Annadurai, who started the practice of promising freebies to lure the voters in Tamilnadu in 1967. He promised to provide 4.5 kg of rice for Rs. 1 and the party swept the poll. But this scheme had to be abandoned due to the financial burden. The freebie culture was further enlarged when DMK’s M Karunanidhi promised free colour television sets and the party won in 2006. To counter, the rival political party AIADMK also promised some other items. As a result, every household received costly commodities from both the political parties.

 

In a democracy political parties have the freedom to declare their policies and programmes through their manifestos which are the guiding documents for governance if they come to power. General public and the opposition parties use manifestos as key performance indicators to evaluate the performance of the ruling party. The main concern is the dangerous levels political parties often go in promising freebies in their manifestos to lure the public.

Promising freebies from the state exchequer amounts to unfair, unethical and questionable practice and also raises serious administrative and legal issues. The government generates substantial revenue from taxpayers and this is expected to be spent on welfare measures through some well established system and procedures. Freebies are nothing but a blatant corrupt practice to garner votes by looting the treasury. The way political parties try to outdo one another, the day is not far away when the available revenue is completely wiped out only for disbursing the freebies.

The case of Venezuela will shake up the consciousness of every sensible citizen of this country. This case highlights how freebies could ruin the economy of a country. Venezuela, a oil-rich country was quite prosperous till 1980 due to oil price boom. Successive governments then began extending everything free- from food to public transport. This oil producing country, which imported more than 70% of its food, faced an acute economic crisis soon after the oil prices started falling. Corruption became the norm. Still the governments continued to waive off farm loans, further damaging the economy. The folly was realized, but it took several decades to recover, but never completely.

 

In a ruling in 2013, the Supreme Court said, ‘It will be misleading to construe that all promises in the election manifesto would amount to corrupt practice. Likewise, it is not within the domain of this court to legislate what kind of promises can or cannot be made in the election manifesto," the bench said as it refused to rule such practice as corrupt under Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act. The court further went on to say, ‘It is the promise of a future government. It is not a promise of an individual candidate. (Section 123) contemplates corrupt practice by individual candidate or his agent.’

But in the same breath, the court said it was a fact that the distribution of freebies influenced voters. "It shakes the root of free and fair elections to a large degree," it said.
Legal and political experts reacted with dismay to the ruling, but acknowledged that the court could not have made a law dealing with the growing menace of promises of freebies.
    After the ruling by the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) held a meeting with 6 national parties and 24 regional parties to impress upon them to stop announcing freebies as they distort the level playing fields between the parties. The Commission wanted to bring the freebies under the ambit of the model code of conduct. But none of the parties, except Bahujan Samaj Party, agreed to the proposal.

 ‘The failure of the parties and governments to deliver development to the ordinary people has led to the increased phenomenon of “freebies” and the parties have to resort to it to win over the voters. It affects the way people vote. Sometimes, it works and sometimes it doesn’t work, depending whether other conditions are fine. People get a hope that life will be better. In Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh and Odisha it has made a lot of difference,’ said Ms. Neerja Chowdhury, political analyst.

 

The country has reached a stage where the highest court of the country is helpless, the watch dog Election Commission is powerless in stopping the freebies, the general public, including the wealthy have started expecting more and more freebies from the corrupt governments and the political class has become reckless.

Is there any way to stop this menace before it is too late?

When a well educated bureaucrat turned politician of the caliber of Arvind Kejriwal, a mechanical engineer from IIT Kharagpur, who served as a Joint Commissioner in Indian Revenue Services and a Ramon Magsaysay award winner can go to any insane levels in announcing freebies, it is futile to expect the political class to discontinue the freebies culture.

 

Only the voters are capable of reversing the dangerous trend set forth by the power hungry politicians. All eligible voters should exercise their right and vote for the party based on the performance and governance. When freebies fail to influence the voters, political parties will be forced to perform and stop promising freebies.

Will this happen in our country of 1.38 billion, where the average voter turnout is less than 60%?

The unholy nexus of politicians and their supporters with vested interests are sure that the expected mass awakening will not happen in the foreseeable future.

 

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 Dr. C K Sreedharan

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