Election Freebies in Indian Politics

Context: Recently, Supreme Court issued notice on a plea seeking directions to Election Commission (EC) to frame guidelines to stop political parties from promising or distributing “irrational freebies from public fund”.

Freebies in Indian Politics

• Political parties promise to offer free electricity/water supply, monthly allowance to unemployed, daily wage workers and women as well as gadgets like laptops, smartphones etc. in order to secure the vote of the people. There are arguments both in favor of and against this practice:
• Supporters of such freebies argue that pole promises are essential for voters to know what the party would do if it comes to power and they have the chance to weigh these options.
• Those against the freebies point out that this places a huge economic burden on the exchequer of state as well as center (if the elections are held for Lok Sabha).

Arguments in Favor of Freebies
Essential for Fulfilling Expectations: In a country like India where the states have (or don’t have) a certain level of development, upon the emergence of the elections, there are expectations from the part of people which are met by such promises of freebies.

• Moreover, there are also comparative expectations when the people of the adjoining/other states (with different ruling parties) get freebies.

Helps Lesser Developed States: With the states that have comparatively lower level of development with a larger share of the population suffering from poverty, such kind of freebies become need/demand-based and it becomes essential to offer the people such subsidies for their own upliftment.

Arguments Against Freebies
Unplanned Promises: Offering freebies has become a competitive bidding done by every political party, however, a big problem is the subsidies or any of the freebies announced are not incorporated into the budget proposals.

• The financing of such proposals are often not incorporated into the memorandums or manifestos of the parties.

Economic Burden on States: Offering freebies, ultimately, has an impact on the public exchequer and most of the states of India do not have a robust financial health and often have very limited resources in terms of revenue.
Unnecessary Expenditure: Announcing freebies in haste without legislative debate does not produce the desired benefits but only ends up in irresponsible expenditure.

• Welfare schemes in the form of power and water bill waivers could be justified if it were to help the poor.

However, election-induced impractical announcements by parties turn out to be far removed from the budgetary and infrastructure realities of the States.
Balaji vs Government of Tamil Nadu and Others (2013)
SC’s argument in favour of election freebies

• The Supreme Court upheld the distribution of freebies and it also held that it does not amount to a corrupt practice.
• If the candidate of a political party promises the same gift, it would not be so, because that promise was not made by him, but the inducement comes from the party.
• The court said that the freebies were administered through district collectors and there were sufficient checks, because government expenditure is subjected to audit by the CAG.

SC’s argument against freebies

• If an independent candidate wants to give freebies, it would be a corrupt practice.

Road Ahead

• There is a need to make the bureaucracy and police independent.
• There is also a need to create a statutory, independent police commission, along the lines of the election commission, to supervise crime investigation and prosecution.
• Currently, political funding is opaque and non-transparent, and at times is linked to corruption.
• Political funding is mobilised by looting the exchequer and by selling patronage.
• To improve governance there is a need to undertake judicial reforms too, to ensure that cases do not go on and on for many years.