Freebies, one of the most famous populist scheme of this time. Recently it's been gaining prominence as many prominent personalities are commenting on the usage and impact of it. So lets understand it from broader perspective including several other factors.
Well, many of us think that what's wrong with such scheme because at the end it is a welfare scheme which is distributing the resources among masses which somehow leads to increase in production activity. for instance, 300 units of electricity given by Delhi administration free of cost . And because of its populist element, people are forming their opinions regarding particular political party. Even giving freebie promises in their manifesto is now becoming a crucial part of vote bank politics.
But no-one can also deny this fact that freebies are guided by short term motives as it comes at the expense of spending more on other basic infrastructure like hospitals, roads, railways,school,etc. Just to put this in perspective, in recent RBI report given the huge losses incurred by DISCOM companies, a bailout in 18 large states, structured around the line of UDAY, would cost these governments Rs. 4.3 lakh crore or 2.3 per cent of their combined GSDP. Hence, such Freebies trembled the economic health of any country.
So should EC intervene and stop the circulation of freebie at once ? Should all political parties halt to distribute freebies ? Shouldn't a political party run a welfare scheme? look, in a country like India, there is a need to run welfare schemes so that every citizen could get their stake in a country. But it becomes very complicated when time comes for distribution of vital resources as there is very thin boundary between welfare and populist schemes. And by considering Finance Ministry's economic report, India's capital expenditure recorded a growth of over 70% in May 2022, we can clearly see that what does our country requires. And talking about Fiscal deficit, punjab with 53% of Gross State Domestic Product ( GSDP) leading other states of Rajasthan, kerala, west bengal, bihar, andra pradesh, jharkhand, madhya pradesh, uttar pradesh, and Haryana.
In the end,however these decision are best left to elected representatives and the electorate. In any case, we don't want any long-term problems because of temporary gains.
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