Tablets: a dose for votes

Low-cost tablets are meant to help poor students do better at academics but it has now become a popular freebie to attract voters — or so more and more politicians seem to think. First it was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Now, Food Minister K V Thomas thought fit to recently distribute free tablets to students from his constituency. Clearly, the old attractions of cheap rice are passé — even for the food minister.