Essay on Freebie Politics | What is Freebie | Is Freebie Good or Bad

Essay on Freebie Politics: Since the downfall of economy in Sri Lanka, the term freebie politics has become burning issue and essay on freebie politics has been become an imporant essay topic for all competitive exams. Here we have written an essay on freebie politics which is very important for all competive as well as academic exams.

Essay on Freebie Politics

During last few years, some political parties of many countries are making government with the agenda of providing free food grains, electricity, water and much more to its citizen. In some extant it is good but the long term result of freebie politics can be dangerous for that political party as well as for the nation. The bad effect of freebie politics can be seen in Sri Lanka where economy collapsed and It engendered a fresh debate on the state’s role for the welfare of nation and its citizen.

The Sri Lanka Government cut taxes in all fields and provided various free goods and services without taking proper care of economic status of the nation. As a result, the economy collapsed and the country indebted heavily which forced it to default on its commitments.

After the news of negative effect of freebie politics in Sri Lanka, various Indian states has come under lens. Over the years the freebies have become an integral part of Indian politics. Political parties make promises in the electoral battles for providing free facilities to remain in power.

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What is Freebie politics?

During the time of election, political parties promise to provide free electricity, water, gas connection, monthly allowance to unemployed, daily wage workers, women and farmers. They promise to distribute gadgets like laptops, smartphones etc. in order to secure the vote of the people. In the next term becoming habitual of giving freebies, they offer additional freebies like various types of loan waivers or free Television, Scooty and much more and try to fulfil all their promises to remain in power for next term. Offering such types of free goods and services to remain in the power is known as freebie politics.

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Arguments in Favour of Freebies

In the last 30 years there has been rising inequality. Nearly half of the India's population are living in extreme poverty. In such situation some kind of relief to the population in the form of subsidies is actually necessary for the population as well as for the economy to continue on its growth path.

Public Distribution System, employment guarantee schemes, free education and enhanced outlays for health, particularly during the pandemic shows various benefits and facilitate overall growth of nation. In the long way it increases the productive capacity of the population and help build a healthier and a stronger workforce which is a necessary part of any growth strategy.

States like Tamil Nadu and Bihar provided women sewing machines, saris and cycles from budget revenues contributing to the sales of these industries which can be considered a boost for the supplier industry and not a wasteful expenditure.

Lower developed states where larger share of the population suffering from poverty, such kind of freebies become need of masses and it becomes essential to offer the people such subsidies for their own upliftment.

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Agruments against Freebies?

Offering freebies has an impact on the public exchequer and most of the Indian states do not have a robust financial health that can be utilised for freebies and for overall development. Providing various subsidies undercut the basic framework of macroeconomic stability and the politics of freebies distorts expenditure priorities. If states keep spending money for political gains and remain in power their finances will go awry and fiscal profligacy would prevail.

There are also limitations for borrowing by states and any deviation has to be approved by the Centre and central bank. Therefore, while states have flexibility on how they choose to spend their money but in general they cannot exceed their deficit ceilings.

The freebie politics is also against Free and Fair Election. The promise of various freebies before elections unduly influences the voters and vitiates the purity of the poll process. In simple words freebie politics amounts to an unethical practice that is similar to giving bribes to the electorate.

Giving loan waivers in the form of freebies may promote waivers to not to pay loan as they think Government will waive it one day.

Freebies: The Way Forward?

From the above it can be seen that freebies are good in some cases like: Public Distribution System, employment guarantee schemes, free education and enhanced outlays for health, particularly during the pandemic which help in uplifting the general masses as well as improving the economic status of nation however it has some negative impacts that can spoil the economy of the country. Realising economic impacts of freebies it is to understand the cheap freebies can be expensive for the economy, life quality and social cohesion in the long run.

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Judicious demand based freebies could play an important role in the welfare general masses as there is still a huge set of people in India who are below the poverty line. The judicious and sensible offering of freebies or subsidies that do not do much harm and can be leveraged should be part of states’ budget.

There is a need to understand the impacts of freebies and subsidies from the economic sense and connect it with the taxpayers money. Also a proportion of state expenditure should be earmarked to ensure better overall utilisation of resources.

Subsidies should be distinguished from freebies as subsidies are the justified and specifically targeted benefits that arise out of demands. Subsidy should be given only to targeted needy people to lower of burden of freebies on the economic health of the state or the central government.

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