Unintended consequences of reining in freebies

The Election Commission of India should be careful when altering the rules of the election game

The ongoing “freebie” debate reached an important milestone this week. The Election Commission of India (ECI) wrote to political parties on Tuesday, soliciting their views before amending the model code of conduct (MCC) to include fiscal implications of promises made by parties in election manifestos. This issue of freebies got more attention after Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently spoke about it and the Supreme Court decided to hear petitions related to the matter. As the ECI has noted, the existing guidelines under the MCC do require political parties and candidates to explain the rationale of promises made and the possible