Off the Record: Two CMs feel strongly about revdi – but won’t speak out

Yet, come state Assembly elections, leaders of big political parties including the BJP and the Congress do not shy away from announcing new schemes with cash handouts, trying to please different sections of voters — women, the unemployed, and many more.

Secret 1 of a state Chief Minister has its origins in this battleground of competitive populism. This Chief Minister, from a BJP-ruled state, finds himself in a piquant situation during elections in other states. His state does not have any scheme which makes large monthly cash transfers of the kind most other states indulge in. So, when he is called to campaign for his party during elections in other states, he is in a fix — torn between the party’s demand to amplify the benefits of a new cash dole-out scheme and his own state’s record of prudence in spending. He has been resolute so far. “If you listen to my campaign speeches during elections in other states, I never talk up such cash benefit schemes. I focus on everything else,” the CM says.

But why would the CM upset his party colleagues in other states by not talking up the benefits of cash transfers? He is candid. “My people are shrewd. The day I laud, praise and advertise such schemes — even if announced by my own party — in other states, my people will demand the same. I cannot afford to go down that path. So I avoid promoting such promises made in the manifesto,” he says. His state is among those with a reasonably good financial health.

But the other Chief Minister’s state is not in such good shape. In fact, no sooner did this CM take charge, he realised what he inherited. Being in a party in the Opposition INDIA bloc, he did not expect the BJP-ruled Central government to bail him out for the excesses of a political party in power before him. So exasperated was he with the finances of his state that in an informal meeting with the Prime Minister, one of the first things he told him in private was to do something about these cash handouts. The Prime Minister had kicked off a big political storm when he referred to such sops as “revdi” while inaugurating an expressway in Uttar Pradesh in July 2022.

This newly elected CM, most likely, got a patient hearing from the Prime Minister. “I told Prime Minister Modi that the only way to stop political parties from this race to the bottom is to bring a Constitutional amendment and fix a cap on such expenditures,” the Chief Minister said.

This, from a CM who belongs to the Congress, a party that more than matches the BJP in announcing cash transfers, comes across as a leap of faith. But then, the nearly decade-long rule of his predecessor had led to an almost tripling of the state’s outstanding debt. More and more debt means higher interest payments. Together with salary and pension, such committed expenditure puts enormous strain on the state’s ability to spend money elsewhere — be it for schools and hospitals or highways and development work.

But realpolitik hasn’t spared even the Prime Minister, who has a reputation of being tightfisted. A senior bureaucrat, who has worked closely with the Prime Minister says his instinct is to call out his own Cabinet colleagues during meetings when they pitch populist schemes. A telling example was how he finally allowed for a completely free rice and wheat scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. “Once you make it free, there is no way you can even charge 10 paise per kg of rice or wheat,” this aide said.

But can free rice or wheat be called a revdi? Defining a dole is always a slippery slope. One party’s empowerment scheme can be a revdi for the rival party. This debate remains unresolved, but poses one of the biggest challenges today.

The writer is Managing Editor, The Indian Express. Off the Record is a fortnightly column