Omkar Dattatray
This is the festive time of electioneering as the pre-process of crucial and historical assembly elections is under way .The different political parties are busy in nominating candidates for fighting the polls and at the same time are preparing their important public & election document called election manifesto which contains & spells the promise which political parties will fulfill if they come to power. But it has been seen that more often than not promises contained in the election manifestoes remained unfulfilled. Election manifestoes should be so drafted as to make these realistic, practical election documents which can be realized or to be more specific to be put into action after a political party or group of parties come to power.
The main item of all most all political parties fighting the assembly elections is the poll freebies which in majority of cases are not met. The political parties offer the lollipop of poll freebies to the electorate to win them over to their side and in advance offer poll freebies to lure voters and gain votes.
These days political parties are offering poll freebies through the election manifestoes like the Kejriwal’s AAP party few years before in the Delhi state assembly elections. However one thing should not be lose sight of that AAP in Delhi, Punjab have fulfilled the promises given in their election manifestoes. Free electricity, free water, offering of scooters/Scotty’s to the girls and women are some of the poll freebies given to the people of Delhi and Punjab where there is AAP government. Influenced and induced by the AAP’s election manifestoes, different political parties including regional parties and national parties are these days offering poll freebies to the electorate in order to gain their sympathy, support in form of gaining much valued and precious votes.
Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party has offered 500 units of free electricity to Jammu region in summer months and same to the people of Kashmir in winter months. Its manifesto also promises to give 4 Gas cylinder Rills to BPL & AAY Families annually. The people in their maiden election manifesto to enlist the support of the voters. This offer of free electricity to people in case his political party is in a position to gain power is through and through a poll freebie. No doubt there are a number of promises for the electorate but these pale into insignificance in front of poll freebies. In more or less similar way the old and traditional party National Conference-NC has issued its poll manifesto which among many political promises including promise to force centre government to restore the political rights to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who according to Vice president Omer Abdullah stand robbed of their political rights. Thus assurance of forcing the Modi government to restore the full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir is also an important item of NC’s poll manifesto. But the outstanding is the fact that the NC’s election manifesto has given a top priority to promising 200 hundreds units of free electricity to the people in case it comes to power.PDP manifesto also promises 200 units of electricity free to every household in Jammu &Kashmir besides promising free water,12 gas cylinders every year to economically weaker sections of society and also promises abolition of property tax for all households and abolition of stamp duty to women purchasing property .Similarly other political parties also offer freebies to the public if any of them come to power after assembly polls. There is one up-manship and competition among political parties so far as offering freebies and subsidies is concerned.
Thus all political parties baring the BJP offers freebies to the people in their election manifestoes. BJP which has yet to finalize and release its manifesto perhaps will be silent on offering freebies to the public because its big wings have already denounced offering of freebies to people by the political parties across spectrum .Poll freebies ,subsidies and populous schemes strike at the very roots of the economy .The poll freebies in effect dent the economy and rationally and economically are not viable and feasible and therefore the political parties should refrain from offering poll freebies and populous schemes through the election manifestoes to the people because these are undesirable economically. Thus the political parties should not be blinded by the greed of winning elections by hook or crook and should desist from keeping and offering poll freebies to the people as these are in contrast with the economical interests of the UT and therefore the political parties should not lure people by offering subsidies, freebies and other lollipops.
Interests of the people and UT must be the top priority of the political parties and thus for the sake of getting power, they should not offer freebies to the people as poll freebies are against the long term benefits to the common people and therefore political parties instead of competing for providing subsidies, freebies and populous schemes to the people through election manifestoes keep political and economic things in their poll manifestoes which are in the favor of the people in long run .Congress is yet to finalize its poll manifesto and in all probability it may also mention the poll freebies to the people in case they win the assembly polls .Ahead of assembly elections ,political parties are trying to woo voters with the promise of free electricity -an issue that is likely to touch a large population of the UT.
The issue of free electricity is directly related with every household in the UT and so political parties are offering freebies like free electricity ,free gas cylinders to the BPL &AAY families to woo the voters. Congress leaders in Jammu ,including former minister Choudhary Lal Singh ,have also said that the party manifesto would include free electricity for the people of Jammu and Kashmir .It suggests that shortly Congress will release its manifesto which may contain freebies to woo voters in J&K assembly elections .Power has remained a major issue in both regions of Jammu and Kashmir .Power shortage and frequent power breakdowns in Jammu region during summer months and in Kashmir region lack of electricity supply in harsh winter months causes problems and hardships to the valleyites .Sensing the mood of the electricity consumers ,the political parties in their manifestoes are offering free units of electricity to consumers aiming at gaining votes to capture power .The bigwings of BJP have rejected the policy of promising freebies to the people as is the Delhi ,where AAP had offered free offered few freebies and thus came to power on the bases of free electricity promised in their manifestoes .The AAP government of Delhi as well as Punjab have fulfilled their freebie promises after assuming power. There is suspense about offering poll freebies to the electorate in their poll manifesto and it has become a current news as many political parties in J&K have tried to lure voters by promise of free electricity .Despite giving sermons to people about the disadvantage to the people because of freebies ,but the Modi government is giving free ration to 80 crore people who live below poverty line. The promise of giving free electricity to the people by various party ‘s in their poll manifestoes is a matter of uneasiness and confusion to the national party BJP which has framed the party manifesto and submitted it to the high command for nod .The question arises has the BJP kept something in its poll manifesto to checkmate the positive impact of free electricity offers to the electorate? At the end one can say that giving of poll freebies such as free power, free water etc .to the people through the poll manifestoes is uneconomic for the UT ,though it may add votes to such parties offering freebies to the people. Political sagacity and economic rationale demand that freebies should not be offered to people to woo them as it has the effect of being uneconomical to the UT which suffer for want of development. Thus instead of freebies ,political parties should promise political rights and other economic and productive incentives to the electorate read people.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist)