VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
In the game of electoral
populism, no one wants to be left behind. You name the party-regional or
national-populism is the punch-line in the electoral manifestos of almost all
of them.
Instead of offering good
governance, economic prospects, a vision for the future and meeting the
aspirations of the youth, offering freebies is being increasingly considered as
an election winning formula.
The latest is the Bharatiya
Janata Party in Karnataka. Fighting a losing battle due to five years of
indifferent performance plagued by indecision, corruption, blackmailing by the
Reddy brothers and removal of a well-entrenched Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa,
BJP has come out with what it thinks is its trump card. This is offering of
rice at Rs 1 per kg to the poor families of the State. In addition, the party
will give laptops or tablets free of cost to pre-university and graduate
students.
Frankly, I haven't been to
Karnataka in recent months but prima facie, it looks difficult for the BJP to
return to power in Karnataka-the first State in south India
where it came to power on its own and ran a Government for a full term.
Freebies won't help here when your record of five years is before the people to
judge. Remember in 2008, Congress had offered rice at Rs2 per kg and also a
colour TV for all families living below the poverty line but still the party
lost the polls and remained in opposition. In addition, Congress had offered
houses to 15 lakh families and made a host of other promises but it cut little
ice with the voters then. In the era of competitive populism, what if Congress
offers rice at Rs25 paise per Kg and 32 inch LCD Television with DTH connection
to every home in rural areas?
The logic is not difficult to
deduct. No one is bothered about populism any more. Even if you offer free rice
to everyone and give a laptop and mobile phone to every soul passing on the
streets, they will not vote for you unless you have a sound policy and
programme and they are completely fed up with the existing government. The
greatest blunder which is being done is that instead of meeting the growing
aspirations of the people, you are simply trying to bribe them and cater to
their base instincts. Competitive populism has swept the thinking process of
the election managers rather than judging and then formulating a strategy to
meet the aspirations of the younger generation.
UPA Government has mastered the
technique of offering direct and indirect bribe to the people at the cost of
public exchequer. NREGA, a big drain on exchequer, gives guaranteed employment
for 100 days. I am not opposed to the scheme per se. It has indeed helped the
poorest of the poor in several states where there are hardly any opportunities
for employment. But for heaven's sake aren't the people and tax payers entitled
to know what kind of work was being done with the massive amount which goes
under NREGA. Having travelled extensively in the so called backward areas of
the country-Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand-I have failed to see
any difference brought about from the work undertaken with the scheme. For how
long would you dig an imaginary pond and then fill it? At the end of the day in
most of the areas, it has turned out to be a bribe to the voters. You rob Peter
to pay Paul.
Why can't NREGA work include long
term infrastructure creation — highway construction, making of bridges on
rivers, laying of new railway tracks? Why can't NREGA funds be used if an
Industrialist wants to set up a venture in the rural areas and wants to give
permanent employment to the people? The
industrialists and entrepreneurs will get incentive in terms of free labour as
government is providing funds from NREGA and this will benefit the area
concerned for a long time. Obviously, no one is thinking on those lines-of
creating lasting infrastructure-as it is not as populist and NREGA continues to
bleed the finances of the country without commensurate benefit for the current
and future generations.
In any case, whatever you offer
as bribe, voters are wise and becoming wiser by the day. They would take what
you offer and want more. Instead of 100 days of guaranteed employment, the
demand is now of 200 days. Similarly, the amount of money being given per day,
is being increased every year and the demand is for increasing it more. If
NREGA were not enough, you want to give Guarantee to Food to everyone through
the proposed Right to Food Bill as if people are not getting their food. They
will buy food at Rs2 per kg from NREGA funds, don't bother about Right to Food.
The aspirations of the people have grown and it is not limited to having a free
food.
But, as offering bribe is
becoming common by the day, the scheme of giving subsidy money directly in your
bank account has been started. Obviously, the indirect subsidy given so far was
not visible and people did not even realise that they were getting subsidy.
Now, the Government wants everyone to realise that it is the mai-baap and gives
them money as well. How long will this populism continue? You do not want to
fulfill the aspirations of better life for the people but instead want to cater
only to greed.
Regional parties too have
acquired the habit of their big brothers at the national level. The Shiromani
Akali Dal promised free laptops with data cards for class 12 students in
government schools and 10 lakh jobs in their manifesto released in 2012. One
year down the line, no one knows what happened to the laptops and the promised
jobs. The Government came down to tablets and has now forgotten even that. I
wonder, how the cash-strapped Punjab Government can fulfill its promise when it
repeatedly delays the payment of salaries and pensions. It does not talk on the
issue any longer and would promise something more bizarre like a two-wheeler to
the voters next time when it contests the polls in 2017.
In Uttar Pradesh, it was
Samajwadi Party which offered free laptops. It gave some of the laptops in a
well-publicised function. Perhaps it helped the cause of the manufacturing
company as I wonder how giving laptops would help in the empowerment of the
students and youth. There is an old saying that instead of giving fish, you
teach how to fish. Instead of giving food, you teach them how to grow food.
This is what is lacking. You just want to give them freebies forever and make
them dependent. What will UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav do in the next
election? Promise a free seven-day trip to Switzerland
or to the relatively cheaper Singapore
and Thailand to
every family in the state!
This business of bribing voters
practically started in Tamil Nadu in 2006 when DMK offered colour television to
the voters if it was voted to power. In the last election, it virtually became
a war with competitive populism gripping both the parties. The Dravidian
parties, DMK and the AIADMK announced bizarre offer to the voters one after the
other-free laptops, kitchen appliances, fans, mixies and grinders, even 4 gram
gold mangalsutra for the poor, monetary help for rural households, free rice
and what not. These parties really would have to become extremely innovative in
future elections as they have offered almost everything they could and people
would want more and more, the frugal finances of the states and the inability
to fulfill the promises notwithstanding. Perhaps a trip to the moon would be a
better idea.
As the election season year
progresses, we would see more and more of such offer to the voters from the
ruling parties in the states as well as the Centre. The Opposition would
indulge in a similar competitive populism. Perhaps there would be proposals for
legislation on Right to breathe, Right to walk, Right to drive a car so on and
so forth. There is no full stop there. (April 22, 2013)
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