OPINION- Preventing of freebies by the political parties welcome step

Preventing of freebies by the political parties to the voters by the Supreme Court directing the Election Commission to frame guidelines is a welcome step which in fact is spoiling the quality of efficiency.

Honestly speaking, the idea of offering the freebies to voters has come from the companies that give free samples to interest consumers in their products.

The contesting of elections is becoming a costly affair because of majority of the voters from the rural and poor class who are least concerned with the transparency and accountability in elections.  They are concerned with the availability of some means of earning or allurement during the elections in cash or kind.  The practice to swing the voters to their side with freebies cannot be replaced with honesty in the working of the political parties as this has become a regular feature since long.

Recent Gopinath Munde’s admission of spending Rs.8 crores in the Lok Sabha elections is another example of use of freebies.

On the other hand, the political parties are also trying to come out of the ambit of RTI Act so that the common man may not ask the funding to the parties and its further disposal, which too clearly shows that freebies is a part of manifestos of the elections which cannot be separate from the politics.

Freebies are resulting in malfunctioning. The first and foremost victim of this is the industry is getting weakened on the one hand and is getting demoralised on the other. In other words, the state governments are pumping out its treasure through freebies and is burdening the business community with unjustified tax collections.

The voters should judge the candidates from their performance in their areas. Will it be possible to say Ta Ta to freebies?  Over to voters!

(Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of City Air News.)