Election season in India has been dominated by the promise of freebies to the poor, especially during the last ten years. If Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister, came up with the slogan Garibi Hatao aur Desh Bachao in the 1971 election, no political party in India today speaks about eradicating poverty. They are competing with each other to swing the votes of the poor in their favour by making umpteen number of freebies.

The freebies include promises of free water, electricity, ration, laptops, bicycles, gas cylinders, public transport etc. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was highly critical of freebies given by the state governments ruled by opposition parties, and he termed the practice as revdi culture. But the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh was distributing Rs. 1,000 to every woman under the much-hyped scheme Ladli Behana Yojana. A few days ahead of Raksha Bandhan festival, the MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan raised the amount from Rs. 1000 to 1250 per month. The CM also announced 35 percent reservation for women in government jobs and said cooking gas cylinders will be provided to women at Rs. 450 in August. The Congress, on the other hand, hoping to work the magic as it did in Karnataka, announced Rs 1,500 monthly payment to women, in addition to providing gas cylinders at Rs 500.

What is surprising is the announcement by Modi during an election rally in Chattisgarh that his government will continue the free distribution of 5 kg grain (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana) to 80 crore people of India in the next five years. “Modi, who has come out of poverty and has lived through poverty, cannot leave the poor helpless like this. No matter how many troubles arise, I will not let the children of the poor sleep hungry. I will not let the poor's stove go out,” said the PM.

The PM's (free ration) announcement is a public declaration that there is large-scale hunger in India and almost 58 percent of the population are in absolute poverty and they are to be given free food. When the Global Hunger Index 2023 ranked India 111th out of 125 countries, the government protested and refused to accept the report. Last year also the government of India rejected the Global Hunger Index that is jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional and country levels. According to the 2023 list, Sri Lanka is at 60th, Nepal at 69, Bangladesh at 81 and Pakistan at 102. PM’s announcement is a public acceptance of the assessment of the level of hunger in India by the Global Hunger Index.

The BJP government and the Prime Minister proudly declare day in and day out that India is the fastest growing economy and India would become the third largest economy in the world by 2030. The reason for the PM's  announcement to continue the free grain scheme for five more years is  to attract the votes of the poor of the five states where assembly elections are taking place this month. But it exposed the PM's acknowledgement of the  existence of large-scale poverty despite India being the fastest growing economy in the world because the benefits of economic growth are cornered by a small minority.

The caste census and economic survey data of Bihar have exposed the development that has taken place in seventy-five years in the state with a population of eleven crores. Even after so many years of independence, one-third of the population of Bihar is living on an income of only Rs 200 per day and this also includes the general category.

Freebies will result in a heavy burden on the finances of the government. For example, the scheme of distributing free grains for 80 core people for a year will cost Rs. 2 lakh cores, according to Union Food Minister Piyush Goel. Political parties in India have to ask themselves whether expansion of free facilities in the name of protecting the poor is the right approach to deal with the problem of poverty.  

Freebies could be a dangerous short-cut from the perspective of the health of the economy. It could also be a strategy to keep the poor always poor. Renowned journalist Shravan Garg in one of his recent articles raised a very valid point. “Instead of creating new employment opportunities, in the name of protecting the poor, the expansion of free facilities is being used to make the citizens inactive, to silence their mouths, to suppress the voice of resistance and to protect the government's own political security”.

The dividing line between freebies and welfare programmes is very thin. So much so often people get confused. Free education and health care facilities come within the purview of welfare because they are a long term investment in human resource development of a country. Programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), hundred days employment (MGNREGA), Mid-Day Meal etc. are considered safety nets for the poor and the state is constitutionally bound to provide them to the citizens under the Directive Principles of State Policy. They are also often viewed as a way of promoting social justice, equity and human development.

On the contrary, freebies like laptops, TVs, bicycles, free electricity, water and bus rides are aimed at benefiting the targeted population in the short term. They are offered in view of luring or bribing voters. They create a dependency syndrome on people who may expect more freebies in the future and become less motivated to work hard.

It is generally observed that anything given free is not valued by people. Freebies can lead to overuse and wastage of resources. For example, a report by the CAG revealed that free electricity for farmers in Punjab led to overuse and wastage of power leading to over-exploitation of groundwater. It is also observed that certain items like bicycles and laptops given as freebies are of very low quality and do not serve any purpose.   

Although political parties raise the issue of surging unemployment, they haven’t come up with any creative proposals for generating large-scale employment opportunities. Generating employment opportunities are to be accompanied by enhancing skills of people. The root causes of poverty in the present scenario of India are lack of employment opportunities and quality education that make the young generation employable with the needed knowledge and skills. Poor health facilities is another root cause of poverty.  Unfortunately, political parties, both the ruling party and the opposition, have not given any priority in their election promises to quality education and health care facilities for the common people.  

What is the way forward?  Spending taxpayers’ money on freebies cannot be justified, as they   drain the resources that are badly needed for human resource development, expansion of health facilities and infrastructure, and creating employment opportunities in different sectors of the economy. At the same time, safety nets for the poor like Public Distribution System, Mid-Day Meal and MGNREGA, health insurance etc. are to be continued. Other freebies like transferring every month a particular amount of money to the bank account of women and free electricity will degrade the dignity of the poor and reduce them to the level of beggars before the government.

The Supreme Court has already taken up the issue of freebies in connection with elections. It has issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments, the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea alleging the distribution of freebies to voters ahead of Assembly polls in both states. A Public Interest Litigation filed by Bhattulal Jain, a social worker, alleged that such pre-poll promises and freebies to lure voters before elections would "fritter away taxpayers' money" and amount to bribery and undue influence.

The Supreme Court may issue a slew of directions to the Election Commission of India and political parties with regard to freebies. The Election Commission in consultation with all political parties may evolve a code of conduct on this issue. The code of conduct may include that political parties while announcing freebies will have to show how they will mobilize the needed resources without negatively affecting the fiscal health and reducing allocation for important sectors like education, health care and employment generation. The Election Commission may be empowered to punish political parties that violate the code of conduct with regard to freebies.

In a democracy people are the masters and the Indian Constitution in its preamble speaks about the dignity of the individuals, and guarantees certain fundamental rights to its citizens. While making election promises, political parties have to focus on the dignity of human persons, especially of the poor, and measures to ensure their fundamental rights rather than offering them freebies.

In this context, it is pertinent to refer to what the summary report of the first session of the sixteenth ordinary general assembly of the Synod of Bishops speaks about the poor. No. 4 of the report says, “Respect and recognition are powerful tools for activating personal capacities, so that each person is the subject of his or her own growth path and not the object of the welfare action of others”. It also says, “The Church’s commitment must get to the causes of poverty and exclusion”.

Elections are opportunities for Civil Society Organizations, including the Church, to educate people not to fall into the freebies-trap laid by political parties. People are to be told that the election promises that do not respect the dignity of individuals are to be outrightly rejected. People have to ask tough questions to political parties and candidates with regard to the protection of secular democracy, fundamental rights and the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. In the absence of fundamental rights, freebies are like coins falling into a begging bowl.