The Supreme Court has opened the floodgates to freebies in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. By declaring that freebies offered by them in manifestos would not come under “corrupt practices” and “electoral offences” under the Representation of the People Act, the judges have forgiven all political parties their sins in attracting votes with outrageous offers.
The freebie scenario may, however, not have as great an impact on national elections as in state polls, but it is much the same parties that will be locked together in all elections. Will this freedom to offer more not give the ruling regional or national party in the states an unfair advantage as their offer will ring more true since they can make the distribution happen at once, or at least make the people believe so?
The learned bench has passed on the onus of reining in the practice of offering anything and everything to families, from free power to housing to water through to every imaginable electrical device, to the Election Commission of India. The body that oversees polls in the country has managed to do a good job under the most trying circumstances. While that body has tried to make the playing field as level as possible, it has, however, not excelled in curbing the excesses.
As a supervisor of polls, the poll panel may have earned a name without being able to shake off the anger it generates on both sides of the divide. But it is in no position to rule in matters of greater philosophical import. Tamil Nadu has overtaken the nation when it comes to competing for generosity in handing out freebies. Where the AIADMK excelled was in promising to make the life of the woman less of a drudgery in the kitchen.
The case may have been triggered by the Tamil Nadu experience but this is a lesson all parties have learnt for the important polls in the future. The offers may come thick and fast regardless of how much the poll panel aspires to take the SC directive in its word and spirit. Also, the well-meaning Election Commission may be circumscribed the reluctance of the parties to accept any restrictive guidelines.
The only levelness of the playing field lies in the imagination of the candidates and the parties. In that sense, at least, this judgment would have done more harm than good. Considering our election-oriented
politics is premised on the principle that the winners take the spoils, there is little that can be expected by way of major reforms in the existing system. To the polls then, with the promise of freebies already renting the air.