In July last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “People of revdi culture (culture of freebies) feel that by distributing free revdis to people, they can buy them. Together we need to defeat this thinking. Revdi culture needs to be removed from the country’s politics."
In October, Modi again denounced the “revdi culture” as he said that he's happy that a major section is gearing up to free the country of the "revdi culture."
The PM has been speaking up against the Congress party's "revdi culture" for some time now.
Cut to May 1, 2023, the BJP election manifesto for the Karnataka polls comes with a promise free cooking gas cylinders thrice a year, 5 kg of rice a month and half a litre of free Nandini milk a day to BPL families.
The party has promised to distribute free cylinders in three installments of one cylinder each in the months of Yugadi, Ganesh Chaturthi and Deepavali.
Not "revdi culture"
Defending the manifesto, BJP president JP Nadda chose to differentiate it from freebie and stated that the party is "taking care of the need of the poor under welfare scheme and not the greed", according to reports.
However, commenting on the BJP manifesto, Newslaundry referred to editorials in prominent English dailies which pointed out the “marriage of contrasts”, questioning how the mix of Hindutva pitches with welfare schemes could fulfill the development needs of a state falling behind “even among its southern neighbours in human development indices”.
For instance, The Hindustan Times editorial noted, “The manifesto makes it clear that after the consternation and protests sparked by the candidates list (due to the BJP’s desire to effect a large-scale generational shift in the state unit and move away from the traditional reliance on local satraps and entrenched money power), the party is looking to steady the ship by building the broadest possible coalition and playing to its strengths – welfare delivery, social engineering and polarisation.”