Only the SC can put a stop to this vicious practice and save the precious national resources from the clutches of the amoral political class
In Indian mythology, there is a divine tree called Kalpataru that grants every wish of anyone seeking its help. In election times, all political parties become Kalpatarus and promises of all kinds of freebies start raining copiously on gullible voters, with each party trying to out compete the others without any concern for resources. In the process, every election becomes a theatre of absurdity.
Just look at the promises made by parties for the upcoming elections in UP and Punjab. In UP, SP has promised 300 units of free electricity to households, free power for irrigation, pension of Rs 1500 to poor and elderly women, which will cost Rs 25500 crore. The AAP has promised waiver of farm loans amounting to Rs 30000 crore, unemployment allowance of Rs 5000 a month for 25 lakh youth, Rs 1000 allowance per month to every woman voter (18+ age), besides 300 units of free domestic power - all of which will cost the exchequer Rs 55780 crore. BJP, battered by the farmers’ agitation, has promised free electricity for irrigation, two crore smartphones and tablets for students and two free cylinders to Ujjwala beneficiaries for Holi and Diwali every year. Only Rs 26000 crore will be needed for all these.
Congress has promised smartphones and e-scooters to girls passing class 12, monthly pension to 25 lakh elderly women and increased honorarium to Asha workers, which will cost Rs 817 crore, a miniscule amount compared to others, perhaps in keeping with its prospect for winning. As per 2021-22 BE, UP had a fiscal deficit of Rs 90130 crore and outstanding liabilities of Rs 6.53 lakh crore or 34 percent of GSDP. It paid Rs 41430 crore as interest during the last fiscal.The cost of these promises will have to be financed by borrowing, whose fiscal consequences would severely limit the state’s development and economic growth.
Punjab isone of the most heavily indebted states of India with debt: GSDP ratio exceeding 53 percent- its economy had contracted by 1.85 percent in the last fiscal. With fiscal deficit of over Rs 24000 crore in 2021-22 (BE) and outstanding liability of Rs 2.83 lakh crore -its annual interest burden alone is over Rs 20000 crore - it is fiscallysliding down a slippery slope. But AAP has still promised 300 units of free electricity which will take the state’s power subsidy bill, already at Rs 10668 crore,past Rs 25000 crore, the ripple effect of which will be felt every where. The power tariff structure already leaves a gap of uncovered revenue; with these freebies, Discomswill notbe able to pay their dues to the Gencos which in turn won’t pay to the banks whose NPAs will continue to rise.
AAP has also promised Rs 1000 per month to every woman voter. BJP has promised farmloan waivers, besides 300 units free electricity. Not to be outdone, Congress has promised a Rs 3 cut in power rates, free electricity for famers, Rs 2000 per month to every homemaker besides 8 free gas cylinders, and Rs 15000 to every girl child passing Class 10. The Punjabi voters must rejoice, their state is about to sink neck deep into debt. The freebies will hurt in other ways too - like depleting groundwater and messing up farm economies.
Unfortunately,Tamil Nadu which has honed freebies to a fine art,is not having any election, otherwise some innovative ideas about freebies would have enlightened us. In 2011 election, AIDMK had promised and delivered goats, gold as well as colour TV, blenders and fans - despite some recipients not having electricity connections. Disgusted with the promises of freebies worth Rs 1 lakh crore, many times more than the state’stotal expenditure on education and health, a lawyer named S Subramaniam Balaji filed a PIL with the Supreme Court (SC), seeking countermanding of elections vitiated by announcement of freebies that amounted to “bribery” under the Section 123 of the Representation of People’s Act (RPA). The political parties argued that they, being committed to the Constitutional goal of a welfare state, were within their rights to frame their election manifestos highlighting the way they would serve the voters if voted to power, and hence the promises were neither meant to act as bribes nor to influence the voters unduly.
In its 2013 verdict, the SC while observing that “distribution of freebies of any kind undoubtedly influences all people. It shakes the root of free and fair elections to a large degree” and that “the promise of such freebies at Government cost disturbs the level playing field and vitiates the electoral process”, disagreed that it was a “corrupt practice” under the RPA. It directed the Election Commission (EC) to frame appropriate guidelines. Since Article 324 of the Constitution gives the EC unfettered powers to superintend, direct and control the election process, it was for the EC to bite the bullet, butapparently succumbing to the pressure of political parties, it ratherlegitimized the practice by stating in the guideline: “There can be no bar on the state adopting welfare measures. But political parties must refrain from making promises that undermine the purity of the election process or aim to exert undue influence on the voters”; and that “There must be transparency with respect to the promises and how the parties aim to implement their promises. The promises must also be credible.
Wherever freebies are offered, parties must broadly state how they plan to gather the funds and finances to fulfil such promises.” The wording of the guidelines thus leaves the field wide open for political parties to make any promises which goes against the spirit of the Court ruling. The EC forgot that in a mature democracy, a political party only owes good and corruption-free governance and nothing else to the voters. While delivering good governance is difficult, fulfilling promises on freebies is simple. It also undermines the fact that relief offered by freebies is only temporary and ignores larger problem of scarcity, input costs and capacity, which need to be addressed over a longer time-period using the same resources.
Now another PIL has been filed before the SC by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking direction to the Centre to enact a law in this regard, as the trend of political parties to influence voters by offering freebies is not only “the greatest threat to the survival of democratic values but also injures the spirit of the Constitution”, which undoubtedly it does.
The petition sought a direction to the EC to ensure that allocation of electoral symbol to a party would be conditional upon its assurance of no promisesfor irrational freebies from public fund. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ramana observed in January, “This is no doubt a serious issue. Budget for freebies is going above the regular budget. As the Supreme Court said before, this disturbs the level playing field.”
The political class will stubbornly resist any interferenceand the EC seems to have acquiesced. Only the SC can put a stop this vicious practice and save the precious national resources from the clutches of ouramoral political class.
(The author is former Director General of the Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India and a Professor at the Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management. The views expressed are personal.)
