A freebie war may well set the tone for political campaigning ahead of the 2022 state Assembly polls in Goa. Popular welfare schemes will be the focus of upcoming elections, but the unilateral focus to provide benefits to individual voters leads to lesser investment in public capital. It's heartening to see welfare schemes deciding political fates. Political parties have realised that the surest way to reap electoral dividend is through benefits to an individual voter. Since the normal development projects haven’t delivered, political parties have to resort to the so-called freebies before election time to win the loyalty and allegiance of the voter. The failure of the parties and governments to deliver development to the ordinary people has led to the increased phenomenon of freebies and the parties have to resort to it to win over the voters. Goans want better governance and development, not freebies. Anything given free will be recovered from others. Better the affected people realise this and elect the government. The leaders of political parties should stop this and engage in promoting infrastructural facilities.
