Not just laptops—from cows to wet grinders, political parties in TN have invented a culture of freebies for electoral gain. How long can it last?
If you are a student, a housewife or a prospective dairy farmer, you may want to make a beeline for Tamil Nadu where it seems to be raining gifts. This year, TN’s Jayalalithaa-led government will distribute close to a million free, 15.4 inch Rs 14,000 Acer laptops to students in the state. Housewives will soon see Rs 1,000 mixies and Rs 2,200 wet grinders adorning their kitchens. (Rs 1,250 crore has been alloted this year to cover 25 lakh familes). Over 60,000 will welcome cross-bred jersey milch cows worth Rs 2,300 into their homes, thirty per cent of them going to the Adi Dravida and scheduled tribes. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s Supremo Jayalalithaa said, “freebies are provided to the general public with the sole aim of helping them stand on their own legs and become economically independent. Hence no one should trivialise it”.
On the occasion of her government completing first 100 days, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa told the state legislative Assembly “It is my desire that everyone gets everything and never want for anything. At one point of time, people of Tamil Nadu will not have to depend on freebies and seek help from others.” The laptops would enhance ‘intellectual development’ and students could now ‘excel in education,’ while mixies and grinders ‘would considerably reduce the burden of women in the households,’ so they could “utilise the time saved for better purpose and contribute more towards their family and the society,” said the CM
The culture of freebies has been a recent phenomenon in the Tamil Nadu political scene, introduced purportedly to woo voters but which has quickly become enshrined as a cultural practice that is here to stay. Moreover, it is not something that has been adopted by any single party exclusively, but has instead been adopted with alacrity across the political spectrum.
The progenitor of the cult of freebies, according to political analysts, was the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which, in 2006, began by offering the public free televisions and subsidised rice at Rs 2 per kg which helped it win the state elections. This came at a hefty cost—so far the party’s various schemes has resulted in ballooning the state’s debt from Rs 80,000 crore to over Rs 1.75 lakh crore within just a year. DMK President Karunanidhi said, “it (freebies) will continue till the poor exist in the State and they were not implemented by securing loans meant for developmental schemes. In a welfare state, such schemes should not be neglected”.
Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK , which came to power in May 2011, packaged both the DMK’s leaders’ role in the 2G scandal as well as brazen feeebie promises to influence the voters and win their loyalty. The state government, in the interim budget for this fiscal, has allocated Rs 8,900 crore for the new freebies scheme which was kickstarted by Jayalalithaa on September 2nd.
| SOME REASONS TO MOVE TO TAMIL NADU Promises made by political parties before the last elections in May, 2011. | |
| DMK | AIADMK |
| Free laptops for first year students SC/ST. MBC and BC | Free Laptops for students from classes X1, XII and college students |
| Free television sets, mixies, grinders, gas stove with gas connection to women | Mixies, grinders, fans or electric stoves |
| 35 kg free rice to the BPL families at Rs 1 | 20 kg of free rice for ration-card holders |
| Free bus travel to senior citizens in local buses | Free bus travel, across districts, to people who are aged over 58 |
| For fishermen insurance scheme and increased in subsidized diesel | For fishermen, assistance of Rs 4000 during four lean months and a protection force |
| Kalignar health insurance scheme | A restructured health insurance scheme for all |
| 2 cows for poor family | 60,000 milch cows in 21 milk-deficit districts and 700,000 goats/sheeps over a period of five years |
| Rs 1 lakh finance assistance to construct concrete house | Green house at a cost of Rs 1.80 lakh a house |
| Wedding assistance will be enhanced to Rs 30,000 from Rs 25,000 with six gram gold | Wedding assistance for those women with a diploma to Rs 50,000 from Rs 25,000, a four-gram gold coin as a special gift as “Thali” |
| Old age pension will be enhanced to Rs 750 from Rs 500 | Monthly assistance for senior citizens to Rs 1,000 from Rs 500 and shelters for them |
Is the culture of rampant freebies a good thing?
Apparently, even the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee seems to think so. “Freebies are not a dent to the exchequer and in the past it helped the people who are living below the poverty line (BPL) and it will continue to do so,” he happened to remark a while ago in May, 2011.
Industry folk seem to agree with him. Abdul Majeed, partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers said that “it is good investment by the state government towards creating solid asset base”. For any government one of the biggest challenges is unemployment, which creates social disturbances. This scheme puts a dent in that. The only issue, according to Majeed, is that there is no proper mechanism to monitor whether these schemes are successful and whether it reaches the actual beneficiaries.
Not everyone seems to be won over by freebies. A city advocate S Subramaniam Balaji filed a petition against various freebies, in which he said that the present package for intended free distribution would add another Rs 1,00,000 crore to be paid out of the exchequer of Tamil Nadu state in a period of five years. The petition was heard by the Supreme Court and final hearing is posted for November 15.
Balaji, who is fighting to curb election-time giveaways on the grounds that they are thinly-disguised attempts to bribe voters, says the state is compromising worthy development programs to finance the handouts. ‘Poll promises are unconstitutional and bribery, amounting to corrupt practice under the Representation of People Act,’ he said. ‘The government cannot enrich private individuals out of consolidated funds. The government cannot create a private asset out of public funds. Giving free CTVs or other items is precisely that,’ he said.
The problem also arises when these assets are handed out to people who don’t really need them. Essentially, a person who is employed in a public sector company and earns around Rs 70,000 a month is also eligible for a Government-sponsored free television scheme as well as a Rs 1 rice scheme.
Where there’s a government scheme, there is bound to be misappropriation of funds, and the situation in TN is ripe for abuse. The CID wing of Civil Supplies Department has seized 5,200 quintal of PDS rice worth Rs 62.5 lakh during a vigorous drive launched over the past two months. The officials have registered more than 1,300 cases so far. “Over the years, the loopholes in the system have led to a flourishing black market, which in turn made ordinary men into millionaires,” said an official.
But as long as the parties keep doling freebies out, an eager public and a climate of expectation will ensure that the state—with an outstanding debt of Rs 1,01,349 crore—will continue to bankrupt itself in an effort to win votes.
