In the past few days political parties and public are speaking their mind and penning their thoughts about freebies and social welfare measures and where one stops and the other starts. Even the Supreme Court has jumped into the fray by constituting a committee to look into the merits/demerits of these two aspects. All these sweet talks remind one of the dialogues in the Hindi movie ‘Ishqiya,’ (2010) where the two protagonists try to impress Vidya Balan, the heroine. Nasseruddin Shah discourages Arshad Warsi from falling for her saying that he has ulterior motives. Out of frustration Warsi states, “Is your liking for her love while mine is only for carnal desires?” The concept of freebies and welfare measures (including loan waiver) depends on what types of carrots are dangled in front of the citizens and by which party. Let us remember that too many sweets could lead to an increase of diabetic persons in India!
