Suddenly the country is abuzz with freebies.The media resounding with high-minded denunciation of them.Experts,opinion makers,op-ed writers are homing in on them.The Supreme Court is shaking its head.Now a committee of taxpayers are to decide if parties can promise freebies before elections.That too at a time when prices of gas cylinders etc are hurtling through the roof.One question continues to nag the mind:What about the freebies the ruling party has already handed out?The opposition circles are however subdued.Perhaps they feel their hope of going one better than the government in offering freebies is getting dashed.Yet they too may end up demanding a level playing field on freebies.
https://countercurrents.org/2022/08/free-wheeling-remarks-on-freebies/
But why all this pother now,when only a little while ago the government itself was handing out dollops of them to cheering crowds?To find an answer one has only to look at the collapsing economies on the country’s borders.The Covid,the oil crisis and the Ukraine war have put them under severe strain and ham-handed handling of the strain have built up pressures until they have nearly broken down.Their governments failed to respond appropriately to the crisis and their ineptitude aggravated it.Though our government is reluctant to admit it, its cavalier attitude to the economy seems to bring on dangerously similar consequences.Neo-liberal economies are difficult to turn around,as they depend on mysterious market forces while the state just monitors the ups and downs.The great virtue of business that can supposedly self-correct with rational analysis fails to work at this point.
But those whose eyes are not blinkered can perceive how the state in such an economy sleepwalks into a mire with unacknowledged interventions.The magic formula of ease of doing business leads to unacknowledged freebies to big business.Tax rebates to the tune of ten lakh crores of rupees in five years(as acknowledged in parliament on August 7)had not led to any noticeable spurt in investments.What is it if not freebies,though by another name?
But no.Freebies are what you hand out to the people,not what you gift the captains of big business.The same goes for the debt defaults on banks turned into NPAs,thrice as much in amount.What you mark down for curtailment and elimination are the doles to the cussed lazy and unproductive plebs.The SC had on earlier occasions refused to interfere with policies,but are freebies not also policies?Even in countries with blazing capitalist banners there are subsidies and ‘incentives’ and food stamps during grave economic crisis.Since wise heads have decided that our blessed country is immune to such crisis,it is therefore fair enough to let prices of essential goods soar and come down with a heavy hand on freebies.And hands off policies!
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by Hiren Gohain
09/08/2022