SC Calls For A Panel To Look Into Freebies Issue

Context:

Recently, The Supreme Court said Parliament may not be able to effectively debate the issue of doing away with “irrational freebies” offered to voters during elections, saying the “reality” is that not a single political party wants to take away freebies.

• The court suggested setting up a specialised body composed of persons who can “dispassionately” examine the problem

Relevance:

GS-II: Governance (Government Policies and Interventions, Issues arising out of the design and implementation of policies, Transparency and Accountability)

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What are Freebies?
2. Understanding difference between welfare schemes and freebies
3. Impact of freebie culture
4. Drawbacks of Freebies
5. Judiciary on the culture of freebies
6. Way Forward

What are Freebies?

• Political parties promise to offer free electricity/water supply, monthly allowance to unemployed, daily wage workers, and women as well as gadgets like laptops, smartphones, etc. in order to secure the vote of the people.
• The states have become habituated to giving freebies, be it in the form of loan waivers or free electricity, cycles, laptops, TV sets, and so on.

Understanding difference between welfare schemes and freebies

• Welfare initiatives include a targeted Public Distribution System, providing social security for labourers, quality education, fair employment, affordable healthcare, decent housing, and protection from exploitation and violence.
• Freebies, on the other hand, are provided to attract voters to cast their vote in a particular election. They create limited private benefit for the receiver and do not contribute towards strengthening public goods/facilities.
• Freebies could include offers such as free rations, TV sets, laptops to students, free rides for women in buses, free gas cylinders and stoves and so on.

Impact of freebie culture

• Given the electoral effectiveness of the freebies culture, states seem to accord lesser importance to welfare initiatives and hence welfare measures have taken a back seat in terms of governance. There seems to be a withdrawal of the state in providing welfare measures such as social security, access to quality education and health, etc.
• The impact has been all the more severe on the poor and marginalised communities due to denial of access to their rightful share of state resources. Freebies drastically widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
• Freebies violate the constitutional mandate of extending benefits for public purposes and instead create private benefits.

Drawbacks of Freebies

• Freebies undermine the fundamental tenets of macroeconomic stability, the politics of freebies confuses priorities for spending, and subsidies continue to dominate expenditures.
• Freebies ultimately have an influence on the public coffers, since the majority of Indian states frequently have very little financial resources and revenue sources.
• Voters are unfairly influenced, the playing field is disrupted, and the integrity of the voting process is tainted by the promise of irrational giveaways from public funds before elections.
• When giveaways involve providing free electricity, it will result in an excessive use of natural resources and divert attention away from renewable energy sources.

Judiciary on the culture of freebies

• The Supreme Court gave a ruling in favour of offering of freebies stating that freebies are not corrupt practice as it is mentioned in election manifesto.
• In S. Subramaniam Balaji v. Govt. of Tamil Nadu (2013), the  court said that “Although, promises in the election manifesto cannot be construed as ‘corrupt practice’ under Section 123 of Representation of People Act, the distribution of freebies influences the people shaking the root of free and fair elections.”
• In 2021, The Madras High Court expressed its strong displeasure over the way in which political parties were competing with each other to garner votes by offering freebies.

Way Forward

• There is an urgent need to tackle the freebie culture in India, given its negative impacts. Also, there needs to be a reorientation of public policy in a healthy direction.
• The political party manifestos should offer programmatic policy interventions towards better public services than narrow private benefits in the form of freebies. They should focus on enhancing budgetary allocation for the maintenance of public infrastructures like schools, colleges, hostels and hospitals.
• The Election Commission and the Higher Judiciary intervention can help in this regard. An informed and aware citizenry is a must to bring about this change.

-Source: The Hindu