Sourab Puri
To put things in perspective, I think we should first have a clear understanding of what freebies actually are. Apparently, freebies are the delivery of goods and services or promises to deliver such goods and services, free of cost. Let us not confuse a freebie with any other state-run welfarist policy. As doing the welfare of citizens is the job of any democratically elected government, whereas a pre-poll freebie may amounts to bribery under section 123 of representation of people act 1951.
Now the question emerges, what really is the difference between a freebie and any welfare scheme. Well, freebies are given right before the polling to garner votes in their favour by different political parties, thus it is premised on the principle of vote bank politics, while welfare policy irrespective of elections run across the year, day in and day out. Some might say that freebies are fulfilling needs of the people but i argue why such needs has to be met right before polling and don’t you think that poor and hungry are not in need of food on other days. Freebie is free electricity, not 24 hours electricity, it is free water, not 24 hours tap water, and it is free healthcare, not affordable healthcare.
Nonetheless, most of the time political parties make illogical announcements before elections for which later on state exchequer has to bear its consequences. Like happened in the state of Punjab where public debt is extremely high touching 54 per cent of its state GDP mark and in the state of Maharashtra where a farm loan waiver cost nearly Rs 51,000 crore to the state’s finances.
This Revadi culture as termed by our Prime Minister has a severe impact on the credit culture of the Indian economy which was already confirmed by former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan where borrowers have the perception that their loans will be eventually written off so they should not pay their dues. This is the biggest reason for the looming NPA crises on public banks. Along with this power discoms are no exception as they too are battling with high debts, like in the case of Tamil Nadu, where the state power discom company is under the mounting debt of nearly Rs 12,000 crore causing a massive blow to the state’s economy. Nothing comes free as someone has to pay for it and here it is taxpayers of the country and all this sends a wrong message to the taxpayers reflecting that their money is not getting utilised judiciously. It creates a vicious cycle of both tax evasion and tax avoidance, causing huge disruption in the financial sustainability of the economy. Along with this, it does no good to the Indian political spectrum, as said by the Supreme Court in Subramaniam Balaji vs Government of Tamil Nadu, that such unrealistic poll promises are serious issues that disrupt the level playing field and jeopardise the principle of free and fair elections, as this gives an undue advantage to the party in power because promises made by them sound more convincing to the general masses. Apart from the economy and politics of freebies, it also has a detrimental impact on the environment in which we all live. Like in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan where farmers are witnessing sinking groundwater which is the result of the misuse of free electricity (again a freebie). We should learn from the failures of other countries like Venezuela or Zimbabwe, as similar freebie culture caused hyperinflation where buying a loaf of bread can empty the pockets of many. Now India is a developing country, we have limited resources and aspirations to grow faster and become a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2024. Here taking economically prudent decisions and optimum use of limited resources are of cardinal importance and the state’s expenditure in a well-calibrated manner plays a fundamental role.
So it is important that government should make policies that benefit those who are in actual need, rather than a freebie which goes to almost all potential voters. Now the question comes, who will bell the cat, I think the ruling government should take the lead and devise any code of conduct or statute for establishing an apex body which should work autonomously to check the freebie culture emerging in our country. And as a society, it is for us to decide, whether we want a society full of unproductive people relying on freebies or we need a society of productive, hardworking and creative people by keeping in mind the wisdom that ‘If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’
