It's raining freebies to woo voters
By Binu Paul, SiliconIndia   |   Wednesday, 13 April 2011, 14:18 IST   |    17 Comments
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It's raining freebies to woo voters
Bangalore: India has an unprecedented record of respecting the democratic values in its electoral process ever since independence. However, Indian politics have been haunted by the nondemocratic practice of wooing voters with money and freebies. Free gifts and unaccounted cash have been raining in to attract the voters in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal during the Assembly elections. The culture of flattering voters with freebies is openly seen in the state of Tamil Nadu where the election manifestos of every party offer free gifts to the people. The Dravidian parties are going all out to grab the power with promises such as laptops and a flock of sheep if voted to power. The incumbent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by its current Chief Minister and the former screenwriter M. Karunanidhi has offered blenders or grinders for poor families, insurance program for fishermen and laptops for engineering students. The party also says it will give away washing machines and refrigerators for unspecified recipients. It doesn't stop here. Further, the ruling party promised to give homes to slum dwellers, bus passes and color television sets to those over 60. Having offered free color televisions in the 2006 state elections, DMK has delivered over 16 million sets to the residents of Tamil Nadu since then. His arch-rival and the main opposition party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by former actress J. Jayalalithaa has left no stone unturned to benefit from the anti-incumbency factor to head the next government. Her party has promised fans, blenders and grinders to housewives, cable T.V. connections, and four grams of gold for poor brides for their traditional wedding necklaces. The manifesto also includes 60,000 cows for 6,000 villages and four sheep each to every impoverished family. BJP too followed the same style with handouts such as free laptops, stationery for students, sanitary napkins for women and 100,000 deposit for female child born in a below poverty line (BPL) family. Not only the leading political parties offer tempting free gifts, even the independent candidates too do. One independent candidate has shocked everyone by offering voters a Tata Nano car if he's elected. The intellectual excitement and approach towards elections and ideology-based politics have taken a backseat in Kerala. Religious and cast equations are expected to script the result in the upcoming election. However, the election manifestos of both LDF and UDF have included adequate ingredients to woo the voters. While the Left front has offered a kilogram of rice for just a rupee to all poor people below the poverty line, the Congress-led alliance offers to distribute rice at 2 per kg to everyone. Large amount of unaccounted cash flow and illegal liquor supply have been reported in the state to attract voters. The long-time practice of offering giveaways is growing larger and more impressive in the recent times. Political parties term the illegal program of trading gifts for votes as welfare programs. The youth feel that a better gift would be a full-time job than these handouts. Likewise, the political parties sideline the real issues as they focus only on the freebies that can attract the larger ignorant voters. What can be done to stop this open bribe to voters? Why is the election commission unable to control this issue? We invite readers views as to how we can make our elections transparent and corruption free.

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