The concept of a welfare State is deeply entrenched in Indian psyche – most of the government policies are envisaged and driven with the welfare of the poorest top notch consideration.
Having said that, excess of everything is bad. The concept of welfare has been stretched too far and is now on the verge of being misused and abused to certain extent.
Over the last few years, success of a political party in any election in India (State or Central) is increasingly dependent on the list of freebies offered to lure voters. Each party is competing with the other and going overboard. Whether and to what extent these promises are kept or not become a question at the next election. The financial impact of these on a State’s finances vis a vis public welfare are also debatable.
The freebies issue has become a matter of grave concern as many a times, the governments intending to fulfil its freebies agenda are forced to take loans indiscriminately without giving a thought to the consequences of such loans just for sake of distributing freebies to voters.
The recent example of economic turmoil in Sri Lanka should be an eye opener to political parties across spectrums who are dependent on freebies to form / sustain a government.
Taking into consideration the overall serious repercussions of this freebies culture on the national economy and with an intent to look into this matter of grave and contentious issue of freebies offered by political parties during polls, the central government has come up with a proposal to constitute a committee with experts representing all stakeholders.
It is proposed that such panel could comprise of Union and state finance secretaries, one representative each from constitutional bodies (such as finance commission, RBI, Niti Aayog , EC, FICCI, etc.,), national parties, stressed sectors such as discoms in the power sector and also include beneficiaries and those opposing freebies.
Interestingly, the Election Commission has submitted an affidavit to the effect that it cannot be part of such committee as it is governing body responsible to conduct the elections.
Experts are of the opinion that unfortunately, political parties are accustomed to a notion that only offering freebies is the only to win the elections – This notion may well create an outright economic disaster just as the whole world witnessed the case of Sri Lanka, if things were to go out of hands at any stage.
Even Supreme Court has taken into consideration the seriousness of freebies culture and the economic catastrophe it could bring on the economy of the country – Supreme court made it clear that welfare schemes and freebies are two different things, there is no issue as far as welfare programs are concerned, however the real concern is with freebies which are putting tremendous pressure on governments to deliver freebies at any cost, ignoring the need for self-sustained growth.
Supreme court has responded cautiously to this issue saying that poor and downtrodden section of the society should not be deprived of welfare schemes – However, it is crucial to ensure culture of freebies are properly monitored and checked to avert the economic catastrophe for the nation economy.
Freeloading of such benefits to some sections of the population agitate the other sections, particularly the one which pays direct taxes like income-tax and pays for electricity, water and other services, whereas the poor get so many services for free. Any benefits to the poor sect must be need based and should reach the most downtrodden, leaving no scope for misuse.
Constitution of a committee is the need of the hour to monitor and keep a check on freebies offered and delivered and to draw a fine line between freebies and welfare programs to ensure welfare programs are rightly served to the needy people and economic side effects of freebie culture are addressed properly.
