Omkar Dattatray
Our electoral democracy has been reduced to a big Tamasha of poll freebies as the political parties without any exception are offering freebies to the prospective voters to lure them towards the parties concerned. There is hardly any need and place for poll freebies given the politico-economic health of the country. But ignoring this hard fact ,the political parties are busy in offering freebies to keep the voters to their side. However poll freebies are not needed but these have great sway upon the voters as the political parties and voters both are benefitted in short term though the country gets the shock of the freebies as it dents the economy of the country .Since our people particularly the uneducated ones and even the educated lot are induced and lured towards the political parties which promise them the freebies in run up to the polls. It has been seen that in the past the poll freebies work wonders in Delhi assembly elections and in Punjab assembly elections as well as the voters voted for the AAP in both these states proving the poll pundits wrong who had predicted the government of the BJP or NDA government. But the voters of the country are impacted and influenced by the poll freebies and the freebies change the political discourse and political narrative of the country. Political parties position their plans as welfare for the needy and dismiss others as wasteful giveaways. There is no legal definition of a freebie, so a useful thumb rule is to assess whether a government has planned the fiscal room before announcing a scheme .India’s political climate is heating up ahead of nine state elections and the Lok Sabha polls due within next few months. A year after political parties argued over the use of freebies to woo voters ,there is no dearth of such poll promises and policy moves. Take the recent cabinet decision to increase the cooking gas subsidy for the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme by Rs 100 per cylinder. It comes at a time when the crude oil prices are on a boil ,and tops up Rs 200 universal cut in cylinder prices in August last year .Does it make for a freebie? Or is the tag better suited to free electricity up to 100 units for families in Rajasthan or e-scooters given away to meritorious female students. To be sure, there is no legal definition ,parties position their plans as welfare for the needy ,and dismiss others as wasteful giveaway .The supreme court was told that the promise of pre-election freebies by the political parties is a corrupt practice under the Representation of the People’s Act .A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud was also informed that pre election freebies is equivalent to bribe and is a ground for declaring an election to be void .Senior advocate Vijay Hansaria appearing for the petitioner ,said, ”Under section 123 of the RP Act ,1951 ,bribery is deemed to be corrupt practice for the purpose of the Act .The expression bribery has been defined to mean any gift ,offer ,or promise by a candidate or his agent or by any other person with the consent of a candidate or his election agent of any gratification with the object of inducing an elector as a reward to his candidature .Thus the promise made by the political party is nothing but a bribe within the meaning of section 123 (1) (A) of the RP Act ,1951,which is a corrupt practice ,and if other conditions mentioned in the said section are fulfilled ,is a ground for declaring the election to be void under the section 100 (1)(b) of the Act. Hansaria ,arguing for the petitioner on pleas including the one filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhayay opposing promise of such handouts by the parties during polls ,told the bench that two -judge bench 2013 verdict of the top court in the matter of S Subramanim Balaji Vs Government of Tamil Nadu and others required reconsideration .The top court is seized of a batch of pleas against freebies promised by political parties .No political party can be singled out to offer the poll freebies as today all most all political parties offer the freebies to the voters and there is competition among the political parties for offering the poll freebies .The political parties without any exception indulge in offering poll freebies and promises which amount to freebies and there is one upmanship among political parties so far as offering poll freebies is concerned. Poll freebies are economically not viable and feasible and therefore there should be stoppage to the poll freebies for securing the economic health of the country .Freebies dent the very economy of the country and hence are unproductive and wasteful expenditure and thus should be stopped in the interest of the country .But the fact is that all most all political parties are busy in offering freebies and poll promises which are utopian and cannot be realized and thus such freebies have no place in our elections and democracy as these dent not only our economy but dent our democracy as well and so what is needed is that there should be a blanket ban on poll freebies .But for this the poll freebies should first of all be defined so that these are made cognizable offences under the RPAct1951.Thus necessary amendments should be made in the Representation of Peoples Act to the effect that the poll freebies should be clearly defined so that all those candidates and political parties which engage into offering the poll freebies are tried in the court of law and required punishment is awarded to the wrong doers who indulge in offering poll freebies .In any case poll freebies are against the political hygiene and political economy of the country and hence the political parties should desist from offering the freebies to the people before the elections .Not only the AAP which is rightly called the mother of freebies ,the Congress ,SP,BSP,JDU ,RJD,BJP and other parties as well are busy in offering poll freebies to the voters in order to induce and lure them to vote in their favor .In short we should not allow the political parties to lure us on the pretext of freebies and the best course is that the executive ,judiciary and legislature should work in unison and define poll freebies so that it can become a cognizable offence so that it can attract punishment as well and this way the atmosphere of poll freebies will discouraged.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist).
