The days when the election manifesto of a political
party dealt with broad policy and identified means
and ways to put that policy into action, are gone.
Today it’s all about attracting voters with grandiose
plans, schemes and financial rewards. The motto is:
if you can’t bribe voters prior to the elections, you can induce
them with cash dole-outs after the elections. It’s like a futures
market where voters go for the party that can give them the
most cash after the polls. And the Congress has chosen this
route to success.
The Congress manifesto is a combination of financial promises
to practically every sector. For the youth there is free petrol,
more wi-fi towers and for the rest there are hikes in dole
like the Griha Aadhar scheme to Rs 5,000, and Rs 5,000 to unemployed
youth. Then for those in the mining sector the party
has promised to waive off loans to families who own trucks at
the rate of one truck per family. One cannot blame the Congress
alone for this trend. AAP was
the first to promise huge dole outs
which would cost the exchequer
an additional Rs 626 crore. When
questioned AAP leaders said the
additional money would be generated
by bringing down corruption
to nil. Can the Congress say the
same? Before AAP, it was the BJP
which started the trend of doles,
which are not a bad thing for people
who are below the poverty line and require state aid. But
the BJP took it to a new level and the annual expenditure on
all its schemes went up to Rs 1,030 crore. And it seems odd
that this type of bribery is not considered illegal by the Election
Commission. Perhaps, it is too late for the EC to do something
now, but it must study the category of ‘future bribes’ and
come up with a solution because, if it is wrong to bribe voters
prior to an election it is equally wrong to pay them bribe money
after the polls.
Of the many promises made by the Congress, the one to set
up a sports education university and medical and dental colleges
in South Goa seem to have come out of a hat. Is there
a demand for a sports education university? Goa is already
struggling to set up infrastructure for the national games, how
will it make room for a university? The promise to set up a second
medical college leaves out the crucial details of whether
it will be in the public or private sector. If at all the second college
is going to be run by the government, where is the money
to fund it going to come from?
Lastly, it has become a painful recurrence for political parties
to promise to throw out offshore casinos during election
only to cozy up to them after the results are declared. Digambar
Kamat was the only chief minister who made an attempt to
move the casinos out of the Mandovi, but the move got entangled
in a legal battle and came to naught. Casinos have been
the State’s favourite whipping boys but throwing them out of
Mandovi has proved to be more difficult on account of the revenue
they provide and the potential for extortion. So, one can
look forward to some U-turns after this election.
