POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 15 November 2008

Populist Poll Pantomime

EMPTY PROMISES OF FREEBIES

 By Poonam I Kaushish

The tricolour has been hoisted on the moon. Our cricket team is being hailed as the world’s numero uno. We have gifted humanity the cheapest car. Brand India has arrived. But... There always is a but, isn’t there? Call it sweet irony or what you may, but we are also plagued with the problem of plenty. Be it politicians, population, poverty what to say of populist promises. That too empty.  Specially at election time when the competition for bankruptcy hot’s up among political parties and sound economic sense is surrendered to political gamesmanship. 

Competitive populism is the spirit of the times with reckless promises being made by all parties with gay abandon, on the assumption that populist freebies yield better electoral rewards than reasoned issues and sustainable programmes. Witness how our netagan are raining populist schemes and loan waivers in six poll-bound States, merrily converting political sops into vote percentage.  Wherein social and economic upliftment is weighed on the scales of vote-bank politics. 

History is repeating itself in Andhra where Congress Chief Minister Rajsekhara Reddy is trying to repeat an N.T. Rama Rao. Remember how the TDP supremo successfully appropriate rice at Rs 2 and made it into a symbol of victory. Reddy too has promised rice at Rs 2 for poor families, stealing a march over the TDP which has still to come up with a counter. The BJP has also jumped feet first into the electoral ring. Asserted Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani, “I promise a Telengana State within 100 days of being voted to power.” All care a fig leaf for the economic and political consequences. Government’s money is nobody’s money, let the populist pantomime continue.

Why blame Reddy alone. In Chhattisgarh his BJP counterpart Raman Singh too has made rice his political staple. He has now upped his rice bonanza from Rs 3 per kg to Rs one for the BPL families. Simply because the Congress pegged the price at Rs 2. Both working overtime to wrest the ‘Chaur Wale Baba’ crown and sit on the State gaddi. . All phokut mein.  No matter that this mindless fight will cost the State exchequer a whopping Rs 975 crore.

In Maharashtra, the Congress-NCP Government is planning a whopping Rs 5000 crore farm debt waiver for farmers left out of the Centre’s Rs 71,600 crore mega loan write-off. It is another matter that despite this suicide by farmers continues unabated. What to speak of the State already reeling under debt of over Rs 1.35 lakh crore. Let the Treasury loot continue. 

In Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, both the Congress and BJP are busy humming their 2003 slogan of BSP (bijli, sadak, paani) like a broken record. Both keeping their electoral fingers crossed that the aam aadmi’s memory is short and he will not remember the broken promises.

Sadly, the populism political parties indulge in would be funny, were it not for future consequences.  None sees the danger of economic derailment.  Specially, when recession and a severe financial crisis is staring the country in the face. Given the economic logic that there is no such thing as a free lunch, a populist scheme is invariably paid for either in the form of higher taxes or increasing inflation.  Precisely what NTR had to take recourse to in Andhra and the DMK and AIDMK in Tamil Nadu.

Undoubtedly, these freebies will have a cascading effect on all sectors of the economy. Paradoxically, causing the maximum damage to the beneficiaries of the populist subsidies. Recall, the Government took a long while to recover from the disastrous “loan melas” of the eighties.  Unfortunately, none remembers that during NTR’s first tenure in 1983, there was a sharp reduction in industrial growth rate.

True, it can be argued that political parties are obliged to be seen as populist.  It would be foolish to wish away political intervention or political interference.  But the point that needs to be stressed is that political jurisprudence in the economic sphere should not cross the prudence limits, where it starts hurting the economic as a whole.  

To put it in another way, a subsidies or doles can be justified on variety of grounds.  Acute poverty is one.  Aren’t such concessions imperative in a country where over 40 per cent of the people live below the poverty line?  For, is it not the duty of the State to take care of the welfare of its people?

Sound argument, indeed. However, at the same time care should be taken to draw a distinction between welfarism and populism. Welfarism takes into account the needs of different sections of the society as part of a large development framework.  Populism, on the other hand, is guided not so much by social concerns but by vote banks.  It essentially implies granting certain concessions which have no economic rationale and are not part of the larger economic planning, as enunciated by the Government.

For instance, wide-spread poverty is a good enough reason to dole out food subsidies. But without linking the amount spent to specific poverty alleviation schemes, is money down the drain. Remember how Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rued that the Rs 12,000 crore meant for poverty alleviation just disappeared.

Unfortunately, our policy makers have not been able to perceive the reality of the situation.  They have failed to evolve a strategy of development which could take into account our pluralism and fluctuating economic disparity.  For instance, is widespread poverty a good reason to rationing foodgrains through the PDS? Has anyone studied its end result?  Has it benefited the Below Poverty Line (BPL) masses?  No, on the other hand, the actual impact working through a multiplier effect has only pushed up corruption, filling political and bureaucratic coffers. While the poor feed their hungry stomachs on the neon signs of MacDonald burgers.

Before Independence, they could blame it on the British.  Who do they blame it on now?  Instead of learning from the experience of our past failures, we continue to thrive on them.  Even today Government after Government holds its predecessor responsible for the economic cesspool it inherited.  Be it at the Central or the State level.

Populism as such is not a new phenomenon.  In the last 25 years and more it has reared its ugly head in various forms.  Political one-upmanship heralded by slogans.  An apt example being Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi Hatao with placating gestures to different social groups. The BJP’s Mandir and V.P. Singh’s Mandal issues are cases in point.  And now economic, which promises “roti, kaprah aur maken”.

Things have considerably changed since then – for the worse.  The basic question that has been highlighted once again by the ongoing populism is the abject reality of grinding poverty, which continues to haunt us after 61 years of Independence. Populism will only provide immediate succour at the expense of the entire future. It is no remedy for neglect of education, health, faulty priorities in respect of industrialization and under-investment in rural areas. The growth of corruption and a bloated bureaucracy. As also over population and apathy to greater productivity.  No Government can afford to throw away money on populist whims.

It is time now for the political parties to realise that good governance and populism do not go hand in hand.  The voter is no fool.  Each populist slogan only accentuates his growing awareness. The real significance of any electoral battle is that unless the problem of poverty is substantially resolved, political earthquakes will continue to rock the Indian polity, whereby it could endanger our federalism and pluralism.  The time to draw a ‘lakshman rekha’ on vote-bank politics. --- INFA                      

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)