India has taken the idea of a welfare state a bit too far. The culprit is votes. Come elections, politicians start raining money sourced from taxpayers who ironically count very little at hustings. Of five states that go to polls early next year, Punjab is outrageously generous, betraying perhaps its pre-poll nervousness.
It has announced Rs 2 lakh each to 83 rioters arrested by Delhi Police for desecrating the sanctity of January 26 this year, Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia each to those who died during farmers' agitation and Rs 50 lakh each to farmers who were mowed down while protesting on road by cars in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh.
UP has also announced Rs 45 lakh each to victims of Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Uttarakhand is seriously mulling over the quantum of monetary relief that will please farmers. Mercifully, Manipur and Goa do not have to be bountiful because arhtiyas (unscrupulous middlemen) do not exist in those states.
However, for those who lost their loved ones to COVID, conscience and politics had not much to offer. The Supreme Court though felt the need to help the affected families and directed the Centre and states to disburse Rs 50,000 each to kin of all victims as part of their duty in a welfare state. But they erred in not restricting the dole to the very poor whose sole bread earner had gone and not excluding lawyers, in particular, as beneficiaries. Why pay for your own clan, vaccine naysayers and habitual violators of Covid protocol?
With no elections impending, states like Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal and Maharashtra have either been dodging disbursal of even Rs 50,000 or demanding the Centre to release funds to enable them to pay more. Bihar and Chhattisgarh are exceptions. The Centre must ignore its wish-list unless it wants to fill the coffers of corrupt officials and politicians. It is most unlikely that even Rs 50,000 will eventually reach the deserving hands without paying money to touts, politicians and officials involved in the processing and recommending cases and remitting the amount. They will meet the same fate as homeless persons who had to bribe in advance, 10 percent of the subsidy given under the PM Awas Yojana to middlemen and corrupt officials.
Significantly, no other country has compensated for COVID deaths. Instead, they sustained workers till they found jobs and helped cash-starved companies to avoid closure. Their welfare package included full or part salaries to the affected and temporary wage workers, household employees, subsidy to low-income individuals and unemployed, one-time cash for citizens, preventing industries from firing workers, income tax relief for manufacturing workers and income support to boost unemployment insurance. There was indeed a stark difference in how we and they perceived victims of COVID.
(The writer is former special secretary, Research and Analysis Wing and can be reached at amarbhushan@hotmail.com)