T Vivek
Welfare and democracy go hand in hand. The avowed objective of the state is to provide succour to the deprived and the needy. However, the government of the day is stretching itself beyond its means in utter disregard of the consequences. State governments are vying with each other in announcing what unmistakably looks like ‘free’ in the name of welfare. These free schemes are invariably named after leaders of the past or present of respective political parties in power in the state or the union government. To stave off any likely criticism they are semantically couched in cultural and emotive terms. The race for such schemes reaches its peak, particularly about election time. At the time of writing this piece elections to local bodies in Telangana and to Delhi Assembly are on the anvil.
Not surprisingly political parties in the fray are competing with each other with what has popularly come to be known as ‘freebies. In the race for offering freebies BJP which has been averse to the very idea of ‘revdi’ (free) too has yielded to the competitive ‘welfareism’ and gave up what many had understood as an ideological abnegation. As a case in point, the BJP announced 300 units of free power to Delhi voters over the Aam Aadmi Party’s 200 free power units.
There are many such extravagant ‘freebies’ across the states in the country which are implemented either partially are fully regardless of the consequences for the economy, fiscal prudence, and development of the state and country. States such as Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana which have made such impractical, unsustainable, and financially unviable promises are struggling to keep the promises.
Given the narrow and short-term political gains such promises yield, it must be said that the government of the day should act as a Trust and those who hold the reins of power must be reminded that they are mere trustees of public funds. Any recklessness on the part of the government adversely impacts development in general, and civic and social infrastructure in particular.
The quality of a citizen’s life becomes a casualty. Public money spent on unproductive schemes not backed by fiscal prudence or not aimed at empowering the citizens nor creating social capital is bound to prove disastrous. The growing debt burden of states implementing such unproductive schemes should inform and nudge us to choose what we want. Countries that have followed the ‘free’ road have found themselves in a bottomless pit. Public utilities of such countries have been taken over by the lenders for loan default. The political sovereignty of such debt-ridden countries is anything but a fiction.
As the most populous nation brimming with demographic dividend, we should make the right choices; choices that offer a better quality of civic and social life and promise a better future. The time is now. As informed citizens, we have a responsibility to create and spread this awareness. The hard-fought and won freedom cannot be traded for a few freebies. It shall be our steely resolve to shun things that come that are not earned. After all, how free can one be without freedom!!!! (The author is a former Member, the Telangana State Public Service Commission)
