Freebie culture elevated to level of art for fighting polls: Centre to SC

The freebie culture has been elevated to the level of art for fighting elections and will lead to disaster if some political parties understand this is the only way to deliver public welfare measures the Centre told the Supreme Court on ThursdayIn a response to the August 3 order the Centre represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said till the time either the legislature or the poll panel steps in the top court must lay down dos and donts for political parties in the larger national interestThe government submitted its recommendations to the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana on setting up an expert panel to go into the issue of populist promises of freebies made by political parties during pollsMehta said Distribution of freebies has been elevated to the level of an art by some parties recently Elections are fought only on this plank It is unfortunate that in the countrys election spectrum some parties understand that distribution of free things is the only way of welfare measures for the society This understanding is completely unscientific and will lead to an economic disasterThe government suggested the Union Finance Secretary Finance Secretaries of states one representative each from recognised National Political Parties Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission a representative of Reserve Bank of India the CEO of NITI Aayog can be made part of the proposed panelIt also said a representative from a national taxpayers organisation or a retired Comptroller and Auditor General of India may be included in the proposed panel to represent those opposed to such freebiesRepresentative from the leading commercial organisations Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce amp Industry or Confederation of Indian Industry and representatives from identified stressed sectors such as Discoms in the Power Sector can also be made part of the panel the law officer saidPlease look at certain stressed sectors Many electricity generating companies and distribution companies most of which are government companies are severely stressed financially he said in an obvious reference to governments waiving electricity bills in fulfilment of their preelection promiseThe top court was hearing a PIL filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay which opposes the practice of political parties promising freebies during elections and seeks the Election Commission to invoke its powers to freeze their election symbols and cancel their registrationOn August 3 the top court while asking stakeholders like the Centre Niti Aayog and Finance Commission to brainstorm on the issue of freebies had hinted it may order setting up a mechanism for suggesting measures to the government to deal with the issueKeeping in mind the prayers made in these petitions which relate to distribution of freebies by political parties we are of the considered view that it would be appropriate to constitute an Expert Body with representatives of all the stakeholders the apex court had saidThe stakeholders could include the beneficiaries those opposing freebies central and state governments opposition parties Finance Commission Reserve Bank of India and Niti Aayog among othersto name a few to take a holistic and comprehensive view of the matter and making their recommendations accordingly the parties are directed to make their suggestions about the composition of such a body within one weeks time the bench had orderedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever