Skip to main content

Modi’s welfare offers: Extreme poverty led people to condone govt failures during polls

By Prasanna Mohanty* 

One of the striking factors in the BJP’s electoral win in the recently concluded election in five states is the role welfarism played in overcoming anti-incumbency. Ground reports and political analysts have reported and commented on this. The post-poll survey of Lokniti-CSDS and the exit poll of Axis-My India – two very credible organisations in the domain – have also confirmed it.
The Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey said while respondents mentioned unemployment and price rise as the key problems they face, the victory of the BJP in UP, Uttarakhand and Goa (it didn’t cover Manipur) could be explained keeping in mind the beneficiaries of free rations and cash transfers (‘labharthi’).
It also said, except Punjab, voters were more satisfied with the Central government – which provided free ration to the poor and cash transfers, than they were with the state governments (also ran by the BJP). The Axis-My India exit poll came to the same conclusion, listing delivery of Central government welfare schemes as one of the particular reasons for the BJP’s successes in four out of five states.
Welfare schemes have always existed in India; its electoral appeal is, however, unprecedented in recent memory and even unthinkable in post-liberalised India. The BJP has demonstrated that it has built up a vote bank of such beneficiaries (‘labharthi’), which Prime Minister Narendra Modi called “Vikas Yoddha” (Development Fighters), apparently to give them dignity, during the UP elections.
The Prime Minister also sought votes in the name of his ‘namak’ (salt). Reminding voters of free ration being given under the Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, he said: “Here it is common discussion among people that we have eaten Modi’s ‘namak’ we wouldn’t betray him”. 
Although later he reversed his position when the opposition took a dig, it reflects a very conscious decision on his part to sold free ration as a personal favour (Modi’s ‘namak’) and seek vote for it.
This is a rare perversity for a public servant.
Free ration doesn’t come from the Prime Minister’s personal fund or that of his party’s; it is public money. Providing free ration to the poor at a time of crisis is his responsibility as a public servant, rather than charity or benevolence it is made out to.
Often enough, the Prime Minister and his colleagues have also claimed credit for supplying subsidised ration to 80 million people after the pandemic hit (separate from the Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana mentioned earlier). The National Food Security Act (NFSA) of 2013 which mandates this (subsidised ration to 75% of rural population and 50% of urban population) pre-existed and his government is merely continuing an existing practice.
In Punjab, the Aam Admi Party’s Delhi model of welfare also played a big role in winning it election. But a distinction needs to be made here. The AAP government provides good and cheap healthcare and education, in addition to subsidized water and electricity and free door-step ration.
This the AAP government has done without putting strain on fiscal resources. In fact, the NCT of Delhi turned into a fiscal surplus state in FY18 – as the last Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report of December 2019 said. The same can’t be said of the Central government.

Dangers of welfarism swinging elections

Be that as it may, welfare measures turning into a potent electoral factor reflect that a large segment of the population is so impoverished and its living condition is so precarious that it is prepared to condone multiple government failures – rising unemployment and poverty, gross mismanagement of the pandemic and inflation etc. – in exchange for 5 kg of free wheat/rice a month (which would end on March 31, 2022). This needs serious attention of policymakers, planners and concerned citizens.
Equally big concern is if a party and government can neutralise their massive governance failures with free ration and small cash transfers, as the just concluded elections show, why would it worry about solving the challenges of unemployment and poverty?
Multiple studies have shown that even before the pandemic hit, unemployment and poverty were growing, even while the GDP growth was robust. Both Periodic Labour Force Survey and Household Consumption Expenditure Survey of 2017-18 first established that.
But the Central government has neither acknowledged nor prepared road maps to address these challenges, relying instead on growth to automatically resolve these, even after both problems got worsened due to the two years of pandemic. The article, Central flaw in the budget: Irrational reliance on the trickle-down theory”, showed how high GDP growth is not an answer since these challenges emerged despite it.
Welfarism is not bad per se, but free ration or cash handouts are temporary relief, not solutions to job crisis or growing poverty. The election results have just disincentivised political parties and governments from doing the heavy lifting.
---
*Source: Centre for Financial Accountability

Comments

Anonymous said…
All the political parties of Indian democracy are treating voters as either as beneficiary or consumer of democracy. Majority of the voters are in crisis and they think election is the best time to sell their right to vote. The political parties are purchasing vote in any terms. There is no ethics and no choice to think.

TRENDING

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Avoidable Narmada floods: Modi birthday fete caused long wait for release of dam waters

Counterview Desk  Top advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has accused the Sardar Sarovar dam operators for once again acting in an "unaccountable" manner, bringing "avoidable floods in downstream Gujarat."  In a detailed analysis, SANDRP has said that the water level at the Golden Bridge in Bharuch approached the highest flood level on September 17, 2023, but these "could have been significantly lower and much less disastrous" both for the upstream and downstream areas of the dam, if the authorities had taken action earlier based on available actionable information.

From 'Naatu-Naatu' to 'Nipah-Nipah': Dancing to the tune of western pipers?

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  Some critics have commented that the ecstatic response of most Indians to the Oscar for the racy Indian song, “Naatu-Naatu” from the film, “RRR” reeks of sheer racism, insulting visuals and a colonial hangover. It was perhaps these ingredients that impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, one critic says.

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

Asset managers hold '2.8 times more equity' in fossil fuel cos than in green investments

By Deepanwita Gita Niyogi*  The world’s largest asset managers are far off track to meet the  2050 net zero commitments , a new study  released by InfluenceMap , a London-based think tank working on climate change and sustainability, says. Released on August 1, the Asset Managers and Climate Change 2023 report by FinanceMap, a work stream of InfluenceMap, finds that the world’s largest asset managers have not improved on their climate performance in the past two years.

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Victim of 'hazardous' jobs, Delhi sanitary workers get two thirds of minimum wages

By Sanjeev Kumar*  Recently, the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) Workshop for sewer workers and waste pickers from all across Delhi NCR. The workshop focused on bringing sanitation workers from different parts of Delhi to train them for organization building and to discuss their issues of minimum wage, contractual labour, regular jobs and social security.