The Supreme Court of India on Thursday criticised the practice of providing various freebies and cash incentives to voters by governments and political parties ahead of elections. This is a long-awaited correction that needs to be made and all the political parties and governments must be barred from resorting to such practice. This actually amounts to blatant corruption that political parties bribe different sections of voters at the time of election. Unfortunately, it has become acceptable.
Since no political party has the courage to resist or oppose such things, everyone gets into the mad race of “appeasing” different sections of the electorate. Once Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to these freebies as “rewaries” (candies). But even the BJP has now joined the race. It had to. Otherwise it will not be possible for the party to win elections.
The subsidies are also being abused as rightly noted by the Supreme Court. Take the example of free electricity to the agriculture sector in Punjab. While Punjab’s economy has primarily suffered because of this huge subsidy, it has led to environmental consequences as well.
Since the electricity is free and there is no limit as to how much free electricity the farmers can consume, majority of them use it indiscreetly. The water drawing pumps run for hours even after flooding the fields. If the electricity bill has to be paid, this wouldn’t be the case.
Not only is it misuse of the electricity, even the ground water table has fallen just of wanton abuse. Since water extraction becomes free with free electricity, there is no limit or restriction as to how much water one can draw from the underground. Environmental experts have warned time and again that free electricity to the agriculture sector is one of the main reasons for the depleting water table in Punjab.
Punjab’s total debt is predicted to cross Rs four lakh crores by the end of the current fiscal. Currently it stands at about Rs 3.8 lakh crores. About one-third of this debt is only because of the electricity subsidy to agriculture being provided since 1997 when it was started by then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Initially, the annual subsidy bill was about Rs 600 crores a year, which has now gone to about Rs 10,000 crores a year. Over the last 28 years, Punjab has provided free electricity worth about 1.3 lakh crores to farmers. This has obviously impacted the other sectors of development, particularly infrastructure.
Although Badal started subsidy to agriculture in Punjab, he realised its long-term economic and financial implications for the state. But it was too late for him to reverse it. But he did advise his close friend and then Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala against providing free electricity there, which he (Chautala) had promised before elections in 1999 to Haryana farmers on Punjab pattern.
Also read: SC questions fiscal logic of election-time freebies
The Aam Aadmi Party has also gone a step ahead in providing freebies to people. In Punjab, every household is provided 200 units of free power every month. There is no income condition. If any household consumes less than 200 units in a month it gets “zero bill” no matter what its earnings are. Lakhs of consumers are getting this benefit and a large section of those can afford to pay as they had been paying till now.
The BJP government provided cash assistance to lakhs of women in Bihar not ahead of, but during the elections. This did not come under the provisions of the violation of the election code of conduct as this was said to be an earlier scheme. Even if that argument is valid, why should anyone get cash assistance without any reason?
Welfare schemes for the needy like the elderly, handicapped and widows are understandable, but why for those who can and who very much do already have regular income.
In India, elections are a continuous process. On an average, five states go to elections every year across the country. Is between there are the General Elections. Correspondingly, there is a mad race among the political parties to provide freebies, which defy economic lodge and the capability of the states to pay.
Take for example the case of Punjab. The state is already indebted to the tune of about Rs four lakh crores. In all likelihood the state government will provide Rs 1000 special cash assistance to women in the state. This was a promise the party had made before the 2022 assembly elections in Punjab.
This would mean about Rs 10,000 crore extra financial burden every month if the state decides to pay Rs 1000 to every adult woman. There in all probability will be some screening and certain conditions. Still the estimated amount will not be less than Rs 5000 crore a month, which makes it to about Rs 50,000 crore for the remaining term of the government.
The AAP is not the only party doing it. The BJP has been doing it in states ruled by it, the Congress has been doing it and so are other regional parties like the DMK. Political parties have obviously made it a shortcut to success. This is not a healthy thing for democracy to happen. Ruling parties will no longer bother about good governance as they have realised that they can “buy” the mandate at the last moment with freebies.
As mentioned earlier, no political party can afford to stop these subsidies or oppose them. All those announcing and providing these subsidies assert that this is “people’s own money which they are getting back”. And the section of voters targeted with these subsidies vote the most. Hence no political party can take the gamble that has all the probability of turning suicidal.
Only the Supreme Court of India can be the saviour for the nation by imposing a blanket ban on pre-election sops, subsidies and freebies that are hitting at the fundamentals of the nation’s economy.
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