CHIEF Election Commissioner Mr. Rajiv Kumar, in a way, has expressed helplessness over the culture of ‘freebies’ that has now made substantial space in the Indian political discourse. Without exception, all the political parties have adopted this sinister tool to score political wins, without realisation of the long-term decaying of the high democratic morality. While stating that it was difficult to define ‘freebie’, Mr. Rajiv Kumar also said that it was high time that ‘accepted and legal answers’ were found to the question. One interpretation of this could be that the Chief Election Commissioner has wriggled out of the responsibility of reining in the political class that resorts to luring the electorate with ‘Revadis’. Another interpretation could be that he wishes to leave it to the people, political class, the Government, and Parliament to deliberate upon the issue and come up with an answer to the ‘freebie’ mess, while extricating the Election Commission of India out of the entire discourse.

 

Of course, these are interpretations. But, the larger issue that Mr. Rajiv Kumar’s statements have catapulted to public attention once again, call for a serious, not occasional, discussion with a collective effort to do away with the new immoral culture. Yes! ‘Freebie’ is an immoral culture. In the previous decades also, some political leaders used to offer doles to the electorate to woo them. Back then, doles remained unkept promises or the politicians in great numbers stuck to a stricter moral code. However, in the era of aggressive campaigns to gain power, political parties without exception are stooping in their discourse to such lows that they are ending up polarising societies. The roots of ‘freebie’ culture can be traced to this polarisation. For, ‘freebies’ act as glue to reduce the effect of polarisation when it come to consolidation of votes in elections.

 

That glue may politically bring together diverse demographic sub-sets but cannot unify the citizenry socially and culturally. This can be seen in the ‘scars created during poll campaigns’ that Mr. Rajiv Kumar has referred to. But, the political class today seems to be oblivious to this. ‘Freebies’ cannot be equated with benefits of affirmative action. While the affirmative action is a positive construct, ‘freebies’ refer to a negative one. What was once ‘freebie’ with negative annotation in moral code, has now become ‘entitlement’ with positive tone in political code, thanks to degeneration of political class without exception. As a result, State after State, election after election, this ‘freebie’ culture is expanding its ugly footprint. No one is willing to acknowledge that this is paving the way for disincentivisation of labour in the long run. This situation is at the root of collective political disinterest in finding legal answers to the issue of doles. To find a legal answer, there will have to be consensus around what should be defined as ‘freebie’. Because, when it comes to legality, definition has to be there.

 

Once the definition is in place, violations can be defined, and the punishment can be determined. Unfortunately, all the political parties today appear to be using the ‘freebies’ issue for hurling accusations at each other while practising the same degenerative practice. If the Indian democracy is to be maintained in all its glory, all the institutions including the Election Commission of India need to come together and discuss the possibility of having in place a law to ban ‘Revadis’ or ‘freebies’ or doles that are corrupting the public conscience. Else, a day will come when competitive incompetence to get more and more benefit of doles will become a salient feature of Indian society. Does society want this to be a legacy left behind for the younger generation?