The Hindu Business Line : Killing the spirit of enterprise

The Election Commission ought to start watching and monitoring the manifestoes brought out by various political parties to pinpoint attempts at inducement.

The NREGS condemns millions of people to a life of manual labour, perpetuating poverty instead of eradicating it. — Ranjeet Kumar

Sharad Joshi

For the first time, a prospective candidate who had not even filed his nomination papers has been found guilty of breach of model code of conduct for the elections. It would appear that the BJP’s candidate from Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi, at the time of his indictment, was not even a regular candidate, and the model code of conduct could hardly apply to an ordinary citizen of India.

An ordinary citizen of the country has been inculpated under the National Security Act even though there was no violence accompanying the provocative language. This means that he may be kept behind the bars till well after the elections are over.

I was held under the National Security Act in 1986 for having demanded remunerative prices for cotton for the Vidarbha farmers. Had the powers that be then paid attention to what I was saying, the suicides of thousands of farmers of Vidarbha since 1995 would have been avoided. I was incarcerated under the National Security Act for trying to avoid what amounted to genocide of cotton farmers.

National security?

It is open to doubt if Ms Mayawati, the UP Chief Minister, really had national security concerns at heart or whether she was flagrantly attempting to attract the votes of a certain community. As far as breach of model code of conduct is concerned, Ms Mayawati appears to be guiltier of attempts to influence the outcome of elections.

There had been a few other cases where some politicians were actually caught distributing hard cash. Offering any kind of inducement with the intent of influencing the voting pattern is frowned upon by the model code of conduct. However, the application thereof seems to be not only selective but deliberately skewed.

The electoral code of conduct is clearly fixated with cases of threat to individual life but totally unconcerned about mass genocides.

The offering of inducements does not happen only in the electoral speeches. It starts at the time of drafting of the manifestos itself. For quite some time, parties have been offering foodgrains at specially reduced prices as an inducement to voters. This is as immoral as distributing cash or utensils or hooch bottles.

The Election Commission ought to start watching and monitoring the manifestoes brought out by various political parties to pinpoint attempts at inducement.

Manifest inducements

The Congress party Elections Manifesto 2009, in writing, promises to increase the number of days for which work will be offered under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as also the daily wage rate. As if this is not enough the party goes ahead to offer literally “free lunches” in community kitchens for a certain class of people. And it then promises to make available 25 kg of foodgrains at Rs 3 per kilogram!

Apart from being an inducement to influence the voters, this promise contains a threat to the foodgrains producers that their produce will be procured at artificially depressed prices. Artificially depressed prices over decades have resulted in mass suicides by farmers. This offer was repeated by no less a person than Ms Sonia Gandhi herself in an electoral speech in Karnataka.

In a meeting that he addressed in Wardha, in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi maintained that his party was essentially for the poor and that as long as one poor man remains in the country, he himself, Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh would be there to address his concerns.

not welfarism

The pro-poor programmes of the government do not come from the personal pockets of the political leaders; they are financed by the State exchequer and ultimately by the taxpayer.

The only contribution of the government machinery in the pro-poor programmes is that the political and the bureaucratic pipeline eats away over a third of the resources allotted by the Centre.

This is neither welfarism nor socialism. This amounts to blatant ‘eleemosynarism’ – a system of encouraging people to live in expectation of gratuitous assistance rather than by the sweat of the brow and enterprise. And this is much worse than giving cash to a single individual. This is the virtual emasculation of a whole section of society. The tragic thing is that the Bharatiya Janata Party soon followed the Congress by publishing its own manifesto, which promises 10 more kg of food-grains to certain categories of people at one rupee less than that promised by the Congress.

Whether the next government at the Centre is formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party or by the Congress, the farmers know that their vocation is doomed because it will continue to be under the regime of artificially depressed commodity prices.

There is an old adage that goes against giving alms to the beggars; “Give him rather the implements with which to work and earn his bread.”

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme condemns millions of people to a life of manual labour, digging pits and filling them, rather than starting an enterprise. Such mindless labour can actually be poverty creating rather than poverty eradicating.

At election time, parties and candidates promise people endowments that will come from government resources that they will get control of if they are elected. That is the reason why socialism/welfarism and democracy cannot coexist.

(The author is Founder, Shetkari Sanghatana and MP, Rajya Sabha. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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