Such schemes in the name of public welfare are contrary to free and fair elections, whose sole objective is to lure people and get their votes. The Supreme Court will also have to see that political parties keep in mind the economic condition of a particular state while making populist announcements in the name of public welfare.
Supreme Court will hear PIL on populist announcements.
Free schemes increase the burden on the government exchequer.
Real public welfare should promote self-reliance.
It is welcome that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the PIL considering it important, in which it has been demanded that in view of the increasing debt of the country, cognizance should be taken of the populist announcements made by the political parties. Although this matter has already come up before the Supreme Court and it had given some instructions to the Election Commission in this regard, but things did not work out.
It cannot be ignored that as soon as elections come, political parties start making announcements of providing free facilities and concessions in the name of public welfare to woo the public. Some parties have even started announcing direct donations. Since such announcements have started becoming helpful in winning elections, their frequency is increasing. The work which was once done in Tamil Nadu is now being done in the rest of the country as well.
The situation is that the BJP which used to call populist schemes as freebies, also started announcing such schemes. Free schemes are started by saying that this will benefit the poor and deprived sections and will lead to their economic upliftment, but it is being seen that such schemes not only become a burden on the government treasury, but also make the poor sections dependent on the government.
Undoubtedly, in a country with a poor population like India, the government will have to worry about the poor and deprived people and will have to make some special efforts for their economic upliftment, but this cannot mean that economic rules should be ignored in the name of public welfare. This is what is happening at present.
To curb populist pronouncements, the first thing that is needed is to define what is real public welfare and how should governments do it? Any such scheme cannot be called public welfare, which does not make people self-reliant i.e. does not inspire them to stand on their own feet.
Such schemes in the name of public welfare are contrary to free and fair elections, whose sole objective is to lure people and get their votes. The Supreme Court will also have to see that political parties keep in mind the economic condition of a particular state while making populist announcements in the name of public welfare.
They should not be allowed to start such schemes which will destabilize the economic condition of the state and leave them short of funds even to carry out basic development work. Keep in mind that many states are also facing problems in paying salaries to their employees on time.
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