Inaugurating an expressway in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a jibe at the culture of giving freebies for votes, which has come to stay in Indian politics. “This Rewri culture (Hindi for freebie culture) is dangerous for the development of the country. Those with Rewri culture will never build new expressways, new airports or defence corridors for you. Together we have to defeat this mentality, remove Rewri culture from the politics of the country,” Modi said at Jalaun.
As far as giving the freebies go, no major political party is blameless. The tendency to canvas votes by promising free or subsidised goods and services is common to all parties. Though initially part of the political narrative in the southern states, it has come to acquire monstrous propositions in north India too especially courtesy the freebie distribution policies of the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi.
Though the Prime Minister did not name any party but he knew where his comments were going to hit hardest. No wonder the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was quick and magnificently vitriolic in their rebuttal to the Prime Minister. “Allegations are being made against me that Kejriwal is distributing free Rewris, Kejriwal is giving freebie. I am being abused, I am being ridiculed. Today I want to ask the people of the country what am I doing wrong? I am giving excellent education to the poor and middle-class children of Delhi in government schools, but for free. I want to ask people whether I am distributing free Rewris or laying the foundation of the country,” Delhi Chief Minister said in social media retorts.
The Prime Minister was not off the mark when he says that “this trend (of giving freebies) undermines economic development. Education in government schools and treatment in government hospitals in Delhi was always free and it’s not this which has been targeted. It’s freebies like free units of power, water and ride in the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses which the Prime Minister spoke about.
The fact remains that despite being in power for almost eight years now, the Kejriwal government was yet to add even little to the city’s fast depleting infrastructure. The so-called world-class health infrastructure of Mohalla Clinics miserably failed to save lives of people during the second phase of Covid. The city looked like being on funeral pyre in absence of medical care and medicines.
The prosperity of a society is known by its fiscal power to purchase than depend on doles of services and goods for survival. The power to purchase comes in a community if the government creates an enabling environment for creation of jobs and increase industrial and agricultural outputs. This has not been happening in Delhi for the past eight years. Though the Chief Minister may shout, with a tricolour in hands, from huge hoarding about Delhi becoming an economic powerhouse, the situation is to the contrary.
While Kejriwal’s predecessor Sheila Dikshit planned for the city on a long-term basis and gifted it an infrastructure on which it continues to survive, the AAP government has been indulging in what can be termed as short-termism for garnering votes. Creation of decent jobs is the most effective and inclusive indicator of economic development but the Kejriwal government has been a complete failure on this count.
One is sure that government would contest this proposition by ferreting some data in their defence. In such situations the best way out is to bring a law which would put an end to such short-term fiscal decisions for electoral gains which in turn jeopardize genuine development.