Freebies: A zero-sum game

The urge to retain hand-outs that perpetuate power equations has left governments with less to spend on the things that really matter to people

The link between the current discourse over poll-influenced handouts and subsidies and the burning fields of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh may not be immediately evident. But it is New Delhi and state governments’ inability to reverse the bounties that are handed out to farmers in the form of free water and electricity, subsidised fertilisers and assured buyback prices that are indirectly responsible for the pollution and public health crisis that engulfs north India for most of the winter.

Farmers burning off the stubble from the kharif season to prepare their fields for the winter crop is a relatively recent