Revanth Reddy, the Chief Minister of Telangana, created a stir when he announced in the recently held India Today Conclave that his State didn’t have the money for capex, attributing this to the huge debt burden left behind by his predecessor. When asked by anchor Rajdeep Sardesai about the cost of implementation of the ‘guarantees’ given by his party before the elections and whether he would support a national debate on the issue of ‘freebies’ draining scarce State resources, the CM answered in the affirmative. A few days later, on March 20, in response to a Zero Hour submission made by the Samajwadi Party M.P., Ram Gopal Yadav for raising the MPLAD budget, Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President, Jagdish Dhankar, also, called for a Parliamentary debate on the issue of freebies.

Earlier, in March 2022, the Prime Minister himself had doubled down on his opposition to “votes-for-freebies” culture in the context of mounting dues of power distribution companies. The word used by the P.M the first time he had raised the issue was ‘Revdi’ and was directed primarily against the Congress government in Rajasthan and the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab. Ironically, as subsequent developments showed, his own party, too, fell for the temptation of wooing voters in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi by offering a slew of freebies. A veneer of respectability, though, was sought to be given to the so-called ‘revdis’ by both the Congress and the BJP by christening them as Guarantees- ‘Modi’s Guarantee’ in case of the latter.

It may not be easy to find a universally acceptable definition of what constitutes freebies. Most political parties would rather describe these as welfare measures directed toward the vulnerable sections of society. Doling out a bicycle, free of cost, to school-going girls as in West Bengal or Tablets/Laptops to high school and inter-college students in U.P during the tenure of Akhilesh Yadav as CM, may sound like giving away freebies but obviously, these served larger social purposes of encouraging more girls to go for higher education and equipping the youth with the skills required in the job market.

A historical perspective and target groups:

Why, even legislative enactments have endorsed what one would dub as freebies. Take the case of the National Food Security Act, 2013 as an example. It ensures food and nutritional security to a significant portion of the population(75% rural and 50% urban) by providing subsidized foodgrains through the Targeted Public Distribution System. The Act, amended in 2024 to further improve nutritional standards, now covers over 80 crores people. Critics would argue, this is an avoidable financial indulgence when poverty levels in the country have plummeted to around 5%.

States like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have had a long tradition of providing subsidized food grains and cooked food to vulnerable sections of society. Jayalalitha as Chief Minister had introduced a clutch of women-centric schemes which yielded rich political dividends to her party.  Presently, also, a number of State governments, including the Central government, are either doling out cash allowances/ stipends or other benefits targeting mainly women, youth, and farmers. The DMK government of M.K.Stalin, for instance, has been implementing since 2023 the Magalir Urima Thogai (MUT) scheme which provides Rs 1000/- per month to women in eligible households.

After the ‘Ladli Behna Yojna’ in Madhya Pradesh proved to be a game changer for the B.J.P., the party-led Mahayuti conglomerate promised a similar scheme in Maharashtra(Ladki Bahin Yojna) involving a monthly allowance of Rs 1500/-to women with an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakhs. This paid rich political dividends in the elections. Enthused with the electoral success in Maharastra, the party promised the ‘Lado Lakshmi Yojna’ before the Haryana elections which guaranteed Rs 2100/- per month (as against Congress’s promise of Rs2000/-) with similar success. Elsewhere, in Jharkhand, the JMM-led coalition’s victory can be attributed in large measure to its ‘Maiya Samman Scheme’. As is well-known, Mamata Banerjee’s hold over women voters is due largely to the women-centric welfare schemes implemented by her government.

Like women, farmers, too, have been targeted as a captive vote bank by various political parties. Punjab, for instance, has had a long history of the Akali Dal and Congress wooing farmers by providing subsidized power and fertilizers. However, it was the Telangana Rastra Samiti’s K.C.R government which, perhaps, for the first time, in 2018-19 implemented a scheme of financial assistance to farmers in the State by offering Rs 5000/- per acre every season with a ceiling of Rs 10,000/- per annum. This paid huge political dividends to KCR ensuring a second term in office for him. The B.J.D government in Odisha followed soon by announcing the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme which was much larger in scope inasmuch as it covered, besides small and marginal farmers, landless labourers, and sharecroppers. At the national level, the NDA government, also, launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi(2019) with an enhanced assistance of Rs 6000/-per annum as minimum income support.

As far as the youth is concerned, Central Ministries of Social Justice & Empowerment, Tribal Welfare, and Minority Affairs have, over the years, been implementing scholarship schemes for youth belonging to the SCs/STs and minority communities. In recent years, with rising youth unemployment being at the center of the political discourse, many State governments, some in keeping with their election promises, such as Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Telangana have launched schemes for providing unemployment allowance of varying amounts to graduates and diploma holders.

Conclusion:

The analysis above shows that the so-called freebies were very much in existence before and are here to stay in the future as well. What then is the brouhaha for? One might ask. The real issue that arises is when political parties in a frenzy of competitive populism, particularly during elections, drive governments formed thereafter, to a state of unbridled financial commitments. One has already seen how the governments in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, and Telangana are struggling to keep their heads over water in the process of fulfilling electoral promises, meeting obligations towards employees’ salaries and pensions, not to speak of mounting debt repayments, leaving hardly any funds for infrastructure-both soft and hard- development. Let’s take the case of the recent budget presented by the newly formed government of Delhi. Out of a total budget of Rs 1 lakh crores, Rs 5,410/-crores alone has been earmarked for implementation of the three pre-poll promises of the B.J.P., namely, providing Rs 2,500/-monthly allowance to women; Atal canteens where meals would be sold for Rs 5/- and cash assistance up to Rs 21,000/- to 1lakh pregnant women. Even for a rich State like Maharashtra, since June 2024, the fiscal deficit has doubled from Rs 1.1 lakh crores to Rs 2.2 lakh crores.

Understandably, the Reserve Bank of India has raised the red flag over such financial profligacy on the part of the States on account of pre-poll sops. Given this grim scenario, any debate on freebies- whether on the floor of Parliament or any other institutional platform- will, perhaps, have to arrive at a consensus over a ceiling on such expenditure as a percentage of the total budget, for instance.

In addition, it has to centre around the touchstone of affordability: the States’ capacity to pay for these sops without jeopardizing financial stability and denial of freebies to those citizens who can afford to pay for such benefits, be they subsidies for services and utilities, or cash benefits. Since the voices over such a debate have been raised at the highest levels, it would be incumbent on the Central government to take the initiative in this regard.