[By Bhanu Dhamija]

[A version of this article was published on The Quint website on 26 November 2023.]

Political parties are “buying” our votes and it’s costing us all a fortune. Just this week the Election Commission reported that there is a seven-fold increase in the use offreebies in the current state elections.[1]Last August, theChief Justice of the Supreme Court said that using taxpayer money to entice voters with free stuff is a “serious economic issue.”[2] As a solution he suggested creating an apex body, to include the RBI, NITI Ayog, Finance Commission, Election Commission and both the ruling and opposition parties.

Such an ad hoc approach to solving this problem is unlikely to work. Our Constitution in fact enables such abuse: its adherence to majority-rule; lack of regulation of political parties; fusion of executive and legislative powers; paucity of checks on government; overlapping state and central powers, and even its Preamble and Directive Principles all make it difficult to restrict parties and governments from making any promises they wish.

Freebies or Welfare: Problem is Not Unique to India

Freebies are hard to control first because they are hard to define. One man’s freebie can be another man’s welfare. All political parties and governments claim that their promised benefits are essential for the poor, underprivileged, women, children and so on. Some of their promises can really be beneficial to society. It is impossible to conclude what constitutes a waste of taxpayer money based on a predefined set of criteria.  And a program that seems beneficial today can become harmful tomorrow, and vice versa.

This problem occurs throughout the world. In all democracies, one faction is liberal and wants to offer more welfare, while another is conservative and wants smaller government. One side wants more government spending and the other prioritizes lower taxes. These fights are taken to the electorate, and the winners pursue their own programs.

This is precisely where the trouble controlling freebies begins, for the winners are often those who made the tallest promises. In countries where the losing side is then ignored, welfare programs become too generous and taxes too high. Good democracies—where the winners and losers must work together—are better able to balance political generosity with fiscal prudence.

India is handicapped in its ability to curb freebies because our Constitution, based on the parliamentary model of majority-rule, gives the minority absolutely no power to modify or stop the majority’s programs. In contrast, the American presidential system has the majority and minority each controlling different branches of government so that the majority cannot “rule.”

Such “divided government” has allowed American parties to take their fights about spending to such an extreme that the government is forced to shut down. While the rest of the world may scoff at this notion, ithelps the country balance its welfare programs. The most famous example is the government shutdown of 1996 whenPresident Bill Clinton (Democrat) and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Republican) fought about spending for education and public health. After the two sides compromised, Clinton announced the “end of welfare as we know it,”[3] and the country balanced its budgets for four consecutive years for the first time since the 1920s.

If We the People truly want our politicians to stop using taxpayer money for political freebies, we must shed the notion that fundamental change in India is impossible, and fix our Constitution.

Not only does India’s Constitution give the majority party the power to rule, but it doesn’t restrain political parties with any regulation whatsoever. Our parties are run as fiefdoms where one or two people can announce any giveaway program before an election. There are no internal elections of officials, no public voting on programs, and no disclosure requirements about their funding.

When our parties come to power, they can enact their promised programs regardless of the fiscal damage because our Constitution has no checks on governments. The Prime Minister or Chief Minister is given all executive and legislative powers, making Parliament and the state legislatures nothing but rubberstamps. There are no restrictions on debt limits and no independent budget approval processes. The Finance Commission can only evaluate the financial condition of governments but has no power to enforce its recommendations. Even the President or Governor must give in to their government’s wishes under our Constitution.

What makes freebies even harder to define and control in India is that our Constitution assigns governments all kinds of overlapping powers. In addition to the Union and State lists of powers, the Concurrent List gives both governments full leeway in introducing programs in such welfare areas as education, medical, electricity, social security, employment and so on.

Lastly, our Constitution’s Preamble and Directive Principles give governments justification for launching all kinds of schemes under the guise of “welfare.” The Preamble declares India to be a “Socialist” country, and the Directive Principles ask the state to provide “welfare of the people; adequate means of livelihood; education” and so on.

If We the People truly want our politicians to stop using taxpayer money for political freebies, we must shed the notion that fundamental change in India is impossible, and fix our Constitution.

[1]https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/politics/story/state-elections-2023-ec-should-ask-parties-to-estimate-the-cost-of-freebies-says-rbis-ashima-goyal-406517-2023-11-21

[2]https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-suggests-forming-expert-body-to-control-freebies-in-polls-3220270

[3]https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/01/us/text-of-president-clinton-s-announcement-on-welfare-legislation.html