Breaking News: Is the Khata Khat Way Splurging Freebies the New Normal in Indian Politics?
With economically weaker sections of the society not willing to vote for any party that does not offer freebies it has become a common agenda among political parties to announce freebies for these sections of the society going by top 10 news today. Let there be no doubt in anybody’s mind that this is the best way to ensure total depletion of the national treasury leading to complete bankruptcy.
This kind of populist policies are usually practiced by communists and socialists although not so in communist countries, of which very few remain operational today.
You are more likely to find this kind of freebee distribution culture among socialist and leftist parties that come to power in democratic countries according to today news paper.
That is because there are periodic elections in such countries every four or five years and freebies to specific sections of society help in sidelining non-performance by the parties.
The result has been nothing but a disaster for many of the states following such policies because it has bred a culture of entitlement among the sections of society that benefit from such largesse.
BJP has unwittingly fallen into this bad policy cycle
The BJP, which has always taken pride in asserting its identity as a “Party with a difference” in the Indian democratic system, could not stay away from this culture of giving away freebies.
Accordingly, it went ahead with the policy of announcing different kinds of freebies for different groups of people from the economically weaker sections of society as per top 10 news today.
Of course, the BJP did it in its own special way by covering it under its slogan “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas” but it appears that the very people for whom it did all this, did not vote for the party.
A major reason for the poor performance of the BJP is that the opposition parties made even bigger promises of giving freebies that these people found more appealing. Hence they are behaving like spoilt brats and are voting for just one consideration – freebies.
If the freebie culture is not checked it will lead to disaster
Expecting the opposition parties to understand national priorities and pull up their oneupmanship in announcing fancy freebies would be a mistake but something needs to be done to check this malaise.
Many advanced nations of the west are faced with an uncertain financial and economic future primarily because they have taken their policies of welfare state to absurd and ridiculous levels.
Within the country, the Congress state governments in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh are already neck-deep in debt after inheriting relatively stable economies with sound fiscal positions going by top 10 news today.
Similarly, the Aam Admi Party [AAP] in Delhi has made a mess of the state’s fiscal position with its unchecked indulgence on populist programs and policies.
If this freebie culture is not checked or at least restricted significantly it would be only a matter of time before the country comes under severe financial strain when debts start piling up as it has already happened in many states. This could take the country back to the days of bankruptcy when India had to give away its gold reserves as colateral in return for a loan to meet debt servicing commitments.