No other state in this country can match Tamil Nadu, when it comes to showering sops on its voters. Come elections, and there is virtually a downpour of freebies offered to the voters, by political parties, with the sole aim of garnering their votes.

Last week, both DMK and AIADMK competed with each other in announcing a range of amazing freebies to the voters, when they thought they had already been saturated by it. After free rice, free colour TV sets, free bus passes, etc.etc comes the new announcements of more. It was always alleged that DMK is the biggest culprit in using such tactics to garner votes and AIADMK chief, Jayalalitha was more sober in such matters. But this time she has also succumbed to it. She has now offered four gms. of gold for the Mangalsutra with a free gift throw in, if her Government comes to power. That’s not all— free laptops to all students of all colleges and even those in class Eleven, free mixers AND grinders and fans to women, Rs.2,500 per ton of sugarcane, increased cash assistance for women Self Help Groups(SHGs), pregnant women and children to stop them from dropping out of school, four sheep to each BPL family, 60,000 cows to 6,000 villagers, free buses to all above age of 58, which beats the DMK’s similar offer, but to only rural citizens, among others.
Karunanidhi’s DMK which has mastered the art of doling out of sops, finds itself stumped for once by this largesse being promised by its bitter rival. Though the party is also not far behind, offering free lap tops to all first year students of government and government-aided colleges, 35 kgs. Of rice to poor families per month, mixers or grinders to women, free TVs of course will continue apart from many other sops.

This almost vulgar practice of announcing freebies solely with the intention to garner votes however, is wrongly attributed to DMK and Karunanidhi. It was in fact, Jayalalitha’s mentor and the charismatic film legend, MG Ramachandran (MGR) who had started this practice way back in 1980. The circumstances under which he came up with the bright idea is worth recalling here.

इस लेख को हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिए यहाँ क्लिक करें

After having worsted the DMK in the 1977 Assembly elections and taking over as the Chief Minister, MGR by the end of 1979, found that his cosy relationship with the Indira Gandhi’s congress had come to a naught. The DMK, which was part of the Janata Party Government at the Centre in 1977, however distanced itself and moved closer to Indira Gandhi after the Janata Party broke up. So the two parties, Congress and DMK aligned for the 1980 Lok Sabha elections and swept the polls wining 37 out of the 39 seats, leaving MGR completely baffled. The advent of Indira Gandhi back as Prime Minister saw her dismissing many State Governments, which included the MGR’s government, thereby forcing a premature Assembly election in May 1980.

It was when faced with this sudden elections, after the humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, that MGR revived a scheme which had been introduced by veteran Congressman and Chief Minister K.Kamaraj, of providing nutritious meals to school children in the 1960s. Kamaraj’s intention was benign and solely aimed at keeping the poor children in school. However, by announcing a mid-day meal for school children as part of the election manifesto, MGR converted it into a vote-gaining tactic. He also promised special buses for women among others things, and when he came to power with a resounding victory, the politics of sops had taken a firm root.

The voters of Tamil Nadu, ever since have been the recipients of such largesse. And what is interesting is that if one travels in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu, as this writer did during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and checks out how these freebie schemes are implemented on the ground it comes as a pleasant surprise. Not only are these schemes implemented quiet efficiently, be it distribution of free rice and dal and salt and so on, or free TV sets, but they are also party-neutral.
There are hardly any complaints one comes across about the DMK scheme being deprived to an AIADMK or other rival party supporters. One also comes across stories of free TV sets being rejected as the family already has one or two TV sets! Many don’t even accept the rice as they feel it is of lower quality, and they are used to higher quality rice!

The flip side to these schemes, perfected by the DMK, is the huge benefits it gives to its party men and supporters. For instance, the free colour TV sets has meant huge increase in satellite connections and the benefit has directly gone to Sumangali Cables, the cable TV giant in Tamil Nadu, incidentally belonging to the Marans, Kalanidhi and Dayanidhi, grandnephews of Karunanidhi. Similarly TVs itself is sourced from agents who are supportive of the party. There is a party connect to most of these schemes, and at the end of the day, everybody is happy, the voters and the party men and supporters, who enjoy booming business.

Surely the free laptops also will mean some party supporter or party men, benefitting from the distribution.
So no one complains and what you have is the parties innovating every time there is an election and coming out with new sops which can not only garner votes, but also fill the coffers of the near and dear ones. A win-win situation indeed!