"Freebies Culture" in Indian Politics - Economy to Trash-o-nomy.
For effective governance of the State, in Indian polity, there is the concept of representative democracy. This is the type of democracy which is founded on the principle of people being represented by the elected officials.
In a society having a number of people, it is difficult for everyone to voice their view. Thus, in a mass-based society where the population is large, the most efficient form of democracy is the representative form.
It allows for effective ruling by a small but well-established group on behalf of the other people in the society. This system is both time and cost effective. The decisions are taken quickly by a small group of people, and hence the view of entire population need not be ascertained, and as representatives they take the decisions knowing the pulse and need of the people.
So in short, a political party is the fundamental base of representative democracy. Hence, ideally, a political party is supposed to be in absolute sync with the national heartbeat, as it were, perfectly being aware of the life and breath of its aims and aspirations. Aferall, their decisions represents the decision of all its millions of citizens. A political party, thus, reflects the interests of the whole nation and guides the wheel of progress in that direction which is for the welfare of all.
Well, now who shall get the chance to represent the country's rhythm? Who shall lead? Its in our hands. We, the people, ourselves elect some of our own fellows who we think are the perfect representators of the public voice and vest powers to them.
They hold power for a specific period of term, at the end of which the process of election begins again. Hence, the representatives go back to the people, asking them to vote back to power, therefore the people in the democratic system have the power to change or make the same government continue to govern.
Therefore, during every election, the party releases a manifesto, in which it outlines its policies and ideas which they would implement if elected to power. And once they form the government they strive to implement those promises.
This is the whole process. Perfect isn't it? Hahaha. Sadly, idealism and reality never shake hands.
In the current political scenario of India, to attract voters, instead of seeing helpful welfare schemes in the manifestos of political parties, we find shallow promises of free gadgets, electricity/water supply, monthly allowances etc. The matter is now crossing the limits as states have become habituated to giving freebies, be it in the form of loan waivers or free electricity, cycles, laptops, TV sets, and so on.
For instance in the recent elections in Telangana, calls were made to people to provide them a pick and drop facility along with food facility on the election day if they vote for the particular party. Another example would be Rajasthan's CM Vasundhara Raje's promise to provide subsidised smartphones to 10 million poor people in the state with free data for the first six months. In counter to this, Shivraj Singh Chouhan offered a smartphone to every student who joins a government college.
Although these offers may look greatly luring from the surface, these irrational freebies are netheir fiscally healthy, nor at all good for securing vote banks.
Impacts of Freebies Politics
1. The Revenue, Expenditure Side :-
Huge drain on state resources: farm loan waiver in Maharashtra resulted in an outgo of Rs 45,000-51,000 crore during the financial year 2020-21.
Low tax collections: due to Free electricity, free water, free rides etc., there is no realization of tax on these.
Huge debt burden: The debt-to-GDP ratio of Punjab reached 53.3% in 2021-22 due to the high-subsidy burden.
Creates a never-ending cycle of freebies: as populist schemes are countered with more populist measures.
More expenditure towards servicing just interest costs: Andhra Pradesh spent roughly 13% of its budget of 22,000 crores on interest payments.
Friends, just think how low we people have sunk from our ideals. Giving us a few free items may make us momentarily happy, but it is them who will be in power for next 5 years!
Competitive manifestos, sometimes seem impractical and illogical and unimplementable. It leads to the degeneration of the political agenda. Using monetory gift to attract large chunks of desperately needy and helpless people also degrades the purity of elections. Voters get clouded by the freebies, losing their conscience to choose wisely. As a result, their greed for power and our greed for free bits of stuff satisfies!
Finance commission Chief N.K Singh recently pointed out that political competition over such sops is a “quick passport to fiscal disaster”.
The Supreme Court of India has decided to set up a committee with representation from the Niti Aayog, the Finance Commission, the Election Commission, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and political parties to study the impact of ‘freebies’ on taxpayers and economy and recommend measures to regulate it.
Lets hope that we quickly find a solution which is in the favour of the country's progress and people's genuine welfare. Let us quickly dismantle this nasty trend of freebie politics and choose our representatives more maturely.
Relating to our today's blog topic, I recall an incident when I was casually debating with my elder cousins about "Is monetory help sufficient for the people of any nation to uplift?"
I had presented an idea of basic income allowance to every citizen of India with adult suffrage. I had opined to give them a fixed amount of money with which they can decisively satisfy their needs, gain financial knowledge and engage in economy. I wondered that we could, this way, atleast eradicate extreme poverty from India, and that after this policy, atleast none can blame the government for the downgraded condition of the poor.
Well, as this was obviously a crazy idea, my cousins defeated me ruthlessly, and helped me get my views fixed, looking at the sheer uselessness and impracticality of this idea. You see, to get the most clear insight about any subject whatsoever, one must try to debate and discuss that idea with as many people as possible, to get views fixed. That's the socratic method of reasoning. Well, that's a topic for another blog.
Coming to the point, it was then corrected to me the uselessness of this basic income idea. But surprisingly, to make sure of that, and to redirect me to my original mission, the essence of all social welfare, the grandest ever relief possible, Swami Vivekananda showed me the way.
I just randomly opened Instagram and suddenly on my feed was one quote of Swamiji, being the final word of my lesson learnt.
"All the wealth of the world cannot help one little Indian village if the people are not taught to help themselves. Our work should be mainly educational, both moral and intellectual."
I immideatly shared the quote to my sister with whom I had just ended the debate minutes ago.
At the end I was blessed with the reaffirmation of my high regards to the importance of Education. I was more sure than ever before, about the exact work needed in India.
When I first though about this freebie fashion, I immideatly linked this issue with this debate incident, being the answer of what exactly a freebie is supposed to be, and how exactly should a welfare state truly uplift its people.
At the end, we get this takeaway, that the biggest welfare given to an individual is helping the one out to differentiate between good and bad. Brains only need training to concieve ideas. Rest of the work they can really reason it out.
Our work is just to make people able enough to think for themselves.
Then, all this struggle of harmony, rigid governance and so on will melt away. The thing that will remain and prevail will be freedom, complete freedom of thoughts and expression. This is the final goal of socialist, welfare state. This is the final state of democracy, which we all strive to get close to.
Thanks,
Daksh Parekh.
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