In a democracy, the voice of reason has better chances of being drowned in the cacophony of populism. When the breed of selfish politicians devoid of a larger urge and commitment to the nation’s well-being usurp power, they go for the kill to remain in their positions and keep the voters on their side. Freebies to the large mass of the poor, state after state, are now increasingly becoming the fancy, the lollipop, for politicians to hold out, win votes and retain power. In a scenario of over-indulgence, question marks arise on the future of India as a nation.
Notably, former Reserve Bank governor, Duvvuri Subbarao, has raised his voice against such excessive indulgences. The freebie culture, he stated, may win elections, but it won’t build nations. His immediate reference was to the Bihar assembly elections in November, where the BJP-JDU combine has retained power by, among other strategies, distributing a dole of Rs 10,000 each to over a crore of women in the run-up to the polls. The rival RJD attempted to be one up, by “promising” a payment of Rs 30,000 to these women if it won power. As Subbarao noted, the political class has suspended “all fiscal arithmetic” in their craze to win power. The pathos of this indulgence was fully evident only when it turned out that the huge sum that was distributed by the ruling RJD-BJP alliance was drawn from funds borrowed as loan for the state exchequer from external sources. In fact, states such as Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra, which have in recent years indulged in similar liberal distribution of poll-related doles or freebies to the voters, are all struggling to balance their budgets. Big chunks of the revenue to the exchequer go to feed such fancies of the ruling politicians and to pay interests to the borrowed crores. The liability keeps swelling year after year. As Subbarao notes, these governments are pushing today’s “consumption burden to tomorrow’s taxpayers. Any government has accountability for no more than five years. It could be a deluge thereafter.
Such an ugly scenario has been building up over the past few years. Sonia Gandhi initiated the free/subsidized foodgrains scheme during the UPA-II, around which time J Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu courted voters with saris and TV sets. Other southern states liberally offered much more, while the assembly polls in Maharashtra and later Bihar took the wind to the north. This would now be unstoppable. Notably, the Supreme Court had made an attempt to regulate the freebie politics, but this did not succeed. Modi watched the scenario quietly, rather than invoking the legislative mechanism to stem such indulgences. He hesitated initially, but is now one with the political sharks to exploit its “electoral potency” for his party. Subbarao, while as RBI head, had earned laurels for keeping the Indian economy in good form while the global economy was battered by the American-induced Great Recession of 2007-09. Boastful statements about India being the world’s third largest economy now is tamed by the fact that some two-thirds of its 1.4billion population live on freebies and subsidies.
