Freebies for TN voters?
Political parties in Tamil Nadu have been known to announce freebies if they win. The DMK in 2006 promised television for everyone. In the next election the AIADMK promised mixergrinders to all women. M. Karunanidhi had also implemented rice at rupees two a kilogram and delivered gas stoves and gas cylinders to women. But in 2021 can political parties afford to keep up the trend with the state government’s fiscal deficit rising to a whopping Rs 93 thousand crore and its revenue deficit ballooning? Barely eight years ago in 2011-12, Tamil Nadu was a revenue surplus state. But profligacy, poor fiscal management, central government’s policies on taxes, cess and surcharge, a slowing economy and the pandemicinduced lockdown have created uncertainties. Opinion is sharply divided on ‘freebies’ with one section holding that it is a bad policy to make people depend on the state for everything. Others believe they help the economy by generating demand for goods and also the help the people. TV is said to have even helped reduce crime and provided the poor not just with entertainment but also with information. Gas stoves, cylinders and mixer-grinders similarly eased the pressure on women, improved their health and also helped some to augment their income. The jury is out.
BJP’s helicopter blitz
For BJP’s star campaigner in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, a minister and close confidante of Mamata Banerjee who defected to the BJP, a helipad is being built at Nandigram at a cost of Rs 40-50 lakhs on a four acre land. While BJP leaders claim that the land was given free by the farmers on the condition that they get it back after the election, they are hard put to explain why Adhikari needs a separate helipad. Mamata Banerjee, who is contesting against Adhikari, will also be using a helicopter which will land at a local college ground. But the temporary helipad with a 100 feet radius, concrete mix and bricks, indicate preparations for a stream of helicopters of BJP leaders including the PM. Nandigram, which was at the epicentre of a peasants’ protest against the Left Front, goes to the poll in the very first phase on April 1.
Contraband: Assam breaks all records
With the first of the three-phase polling in Assam slated for March 27, the state has already broken all previous record in seizure of cash, drugs, liquor and other contraband after the poll was notified on February 26. In the next eleven days, agencies had confiscated Rs 4.27 crore in cash, 3.58 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 5.52 crore, drugs and narcotics worth Rs 4 crore, gold and silver worth rupees one crore and other freebies for voters worth Rs 3.52 crore.
Criminal cases: BJP ahead in Bengal
A study by the Bengal chapter of Election Watch revealed that BJP had the highest percentage of MPs and MLAs from the state with criminal cases between 2004 and 2019. According to the study published on Tuesday, 59 per cent or 17 of the 29 BJP MPs and MLAs elected since 2004, have declared criminal cases against them. 14 of these lawmakers disclosed serious criminal charges.In comparison, 171 of the 520 MPs and MLAs of Trinamool Congress comprising 32%, elected since 2004, have criminal cases. The report also shows that in the poor and backward state, BJP lawmakers are the wealthiest with average assets of the 29 BJP MPs and MLAs who have won since 2009 valued at Rs 2.27 crore, followed by 530 Trinamool lawmakers whose average assets are worth Rs 1.55 crore. Not surprisingly, the percentage of tainted lawmakers and average assetsof the CPM MPs and MLAs were on the lower side. While 41 or 15 per cent of the 274 CPM lawmakers have criminal cases against them, their average asset is just Rs 22.37 lakh.
