Political parties have given dangerous signals by showering free slogans in the elections of five states.

Election is the life force of democracy, it is a reflection of the national character, the healthiness and purity of elections is essential for the establishment of healthy values ​​in democracy. If the election process is wrong and valueless, not only does the roots of democracy become hollow, the nation also moves towards valuelessness. In the absence of purity of character, election purity cannot be imagined. This time the same thing is being seen in the assembly elections of five states, the noise of rave culture, populist promises and guarantees is being heard, there is a competition to win the elections by all means, which in time This can become a challenge for the country’s empowerment, economic discipline and selection of qualified public representatives. The tradition of continuously distributing free raviya in elections has blurred the election process and its ideals. It is an irony that people have started giving priority to the benefits of narrow thinking by ignoring the priority of qualification, hard work and character of the public representative. The temptation of politicians and the public from this corrupt tradition is increasing. To close one’s eyes or to put one’s fingers in one’s ears after seeing this increasing evil and deformity is an escape from one’s responsibility; it is expected that widespread public awareness should be raised against it. Today, Ravana of increasing corruption in elections is kidnapping humanity and Sita of election purity, everyone is watching this disaster happening, but no Jatayu is in a position to come forward and oppose it. This silence and indifference of the public, political parties and leaders towards election corruption will increase it, otherwise what else will it do?

Voting for assembly elections has taken place in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. Now only voting is left in Telangana. During the election campaign of these states, it came to the fore that the voters are ready to fall victim to the allurement of the political parties and the political parties and their candidates are in a race to cheat, lure and mislead the voters. ‘Pulav has arrived in the plate of the poor…It seems that elections have arrived in the city’ These two lines are an accurate commentary on Indian politics and elections, which is sad and ironic. Generally, voters do not see in the manifestos of political parties whether concrete promises of good education, health system, employment, civic facilities, electricity-water etc. have been made in them or not? He now sees what freebies and facilities any party has promised him. The need of the hour is that instead of giving lollipops and distributing free rabbles to the voters, they should be given such opportunities so that they can become self-reliant over time, can play a meaningful role in building a strong democracy, and can contribute to the strong economic development of the country.

Corrupt elections will only lead to corrupt leadership, such corrupt conditions will lead to widespread corruption in the country’s economic development and economic challenges will arise before the government. In this way, free schemes and guarantees will not only increase our fiscal deficit but will also give free space to corruption to flourish. If voters ignore the long-term policies and development plans of any political party and give priority to immediate benefits, then they will have to pay the price in the future. Conspiracies of candidates and greed of voters also put our election process in danger. It is obvious that the leader who comes to power on the basis of the culture of freebies will, in time, make exploitation of government resources his priority. The money he has distributed during the elections will be recovered many times over by all means. Due to which the mentality of plunder can be encouraged in democracy. Along with the culture of free revelry in elections, increasing expenditure of elections is also a matter of serious concern. Each candidate spends crores of rupees in election campaign. He gets this money from capitalists and industrialists. After winning the elections, those industrialists get many facilities from them through legitimate and illegitimate means. For this reason, the government is unable to raise any voice against their exploitation and the tradition of immorality and corruption is nurtured. If seen in reality then Janmantra Arthatan. It remains that the more money a person has, the more votes he will be able to buy. In such a situation, the way for honest, capable and hardworking people to enter politics will be closed. In the critical situation of increasing corruption in elections, if the Jatayuva Vritti of every individual can be awakened, if a powerful collective voice can be raised against electoral corruption and if that voice can get stability, then the roots of democracy can be watered and in such circumstances. In this too, our nectar period can also become nectar for the election process.

This time in the assembly elections of five states, political parties were busy competing to outdo each other by offering freebies to woo the voters. This rain of rallies in the elections has both political and economic implications. At the same time, it also reveals the double standards of those political parties who show a mirror to other parties in terms of freebies but do not hesitate to take their help to win elections. This dual attitude is also embedded in the character of BJP. Truly free gifts always come at a high cost. It is also a failure of our democracy that even after seven and a half decades of independence, we have not been able to make our democracy so alert and prosperous that the voters can vote with their conscience considering their long-term good and bad. Past experiences show that the economy of any state which has distributed free food grains, water, electricity and subsidies is bound to collapse in the future. Nothing is truly free, it is created from the hard-earned money of taxpayers. The country needs welfare policies, but they should be based on economic discipline and fiscal prudence.

No party is ready to tell how they will fulfill the promises of providing free items like scooters, laptops, mobiles, gold, free electricity, water, bus travel and other items and facilities. That’s really the question voters should be asking. If he does not ask this question then it is because of greed and immediate gain. But it is important to think about how harmful this profit-oriented approach of voters is for the entire democracy. It is not that the game of distributing money did not happen in the country earlier, but the scale on which it is happening today should be a matter of concern for every patriot. Somewhere, this game of free guarantees will cause a deep blow to accountable governance and economic stability in the long run. These activities raise questions on a responsible democracy. It is a big truth that distributing free food has a detrimental effect on our economy and rational good governance. Ultimately the economic pressure of Rewari culture falls on government resources. The economic resources of the states are limited. The money so distributed eventually cuts into the funds earmarked for our infrastructure and development projects. Due to which the goal of overall and balanced development is not achieved. Certainly the weaker section of the society should be given financial support. But distributing free ravids will make them indolent and weak, the need should be for solid economic development and creation of employment opportunities.

-Lalit Garg

(The author is a senior journalist and columnist)