Elections are meant to be celebrations of democracy. In India, they have become auctions — where votes are bid for with treasury money, and fiscal sanity becomes the first casualty. Nothing illustrates this more sharply than the 2025 Bihar Assembly election, where competitive populism has reached a fever pitch.
Barely weeks into the campaign, political parties have unleashed promises worth over Rs 8 lakh crore annually — more than three times Bihar’s state budget. Nitish Kumar promises 125 units of free power (Rs 12,000 crore), social security pensions tripled to Rs 1,100/month for 1.13 crore people, and 1 crore jobs over five years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi transferred Rs 10,000 to 75 lakh women under a Rs 7,500 crore scheme — weeks before polling, using state funds as campaign currency. Not to be outdone, Tejashwi Yadav promises a Rs 2,500 monthly cash transfer for every woman (Rs 45,000 crore), 200 units of free electricity, and a fiscal impossibility: One government job per family — requiring 2.5 crore new posts at Rs 7.5 lakh crore annually.
Welcome to India’s new political economy — where welfarism has been weaponised into vote-buying, and the public exchequer has become a private election fund.
We must separate welfare from freebies. Welfare is a constitutional obligation — food, education, healthcare, and pensions. Mid-day meals are welfare; they improve nutrition and school attendance. Cash handouts weeks
before polls are freebies; they buy votes, not outcomes. Welfare creates capability; freebies create dependency.
There is also hypocrisy in our political vocabulary. Benefits are called “incentives” and “reforms” when they go to the rich. In 2019, corporate tax was slashed from 30 per cent to 22 per cent within 36 hours of an important event in Houston, costing India Rs 1.45 lakh crore annually — yet that was hailed as “bold economics”. But when poor households receive Rs 1,000, it becomes a moral threat to the nation. Why this double standard?
Freebies fall into two phases during election cycles. Before the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), ruling parties rush to announce subsidies and cash transfers timed just before the Election Commission steps in — a legal but unethical use of the public exchequer. After the election notification, the MCC blocks new schemes by ministers — but party manifestos are exempt. In 2013, the Supreme Court held (S Subramaniam Balaji vs Government of Tamil Nadu) that manifesto promises do not amount to “corrupt practices” under Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act (RPA). The Court acknowledged such promises “shake the roots of free and fair elections” — but stopped short of banning them, leaving a loophole that parties now exploit.
Here is the paradox: Under Section 123(1) of the RPA, offering a voter a cup of tea is bribery. Yet, promising Rs 2,500 per month to millions of voters is considered democracy. Can someone explain that?
Freebies now pose a systemic threat to India’s economic stability. The RBI’s ‘Report on State Finances 2022-23’ warned that heavily indebted states face “fiscal collapse” due to reckless populism. Punjab offers 300 units of free electricity and multiple cash schemes; its debt-to-GSDP ratio stood at 47.2 per cent in 2023-24, the highest in India. Rajasthan spent Rs 56,000 crore on pre-election schemes in FY 2023-24, pushing state debt to Rs 5.6 lakh crore. Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, now faces promises worth Rs 8 lakh crore annually.
Who pays? Not the politicians who promise. Not the parties who benefit. The taxpayer — today’s and tomorrow’s. Freebies today are taxation and economic ruin tomorrow.
It’s worth noting that not all subsidies are bad. When N T Rama Rao, as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister in the 1980s, introduced Rs 2 per kilo rice, it eliminated starvation deaths. Bicycle schemes in Bihar increased girls’ school enrolment by over 30 per cent. MGNREGA provided rural employment security. The question is: How do we stop welfare from being misused for election bribery?
The irony is that freebies are sold in the name of the poor, but the poor remain poor. According to Oxfam India’s 2022 report, the richest 1 per cent own 51.5 per cent of national wealth while the bottom 60 per cent own just 5 per cent. India ranks 130th (2023) in the UN Human Development Index. One in three Indian children is malnourished. Eighty-one crore people rely on free rations. India needs jobs, skills, irrigation, healthcare, education — not temporary appeasement.
In November 2023, the Supreme Court admitted a plea that pre-poll freebies should be treated as corrupt practices under RPA Section 123. Justice B V Nagarathna remarked: “Distribution of private goods to influence voters must be treated as a corrupt practice.” The Court has suggested a constitutional body to define and regulate freebies. The case remains pending. Meanwhile, Bihar 2025 proceeds along predictable lines. Parliament must amend the RPA to criminalise electoral bribery disguised as welfare.
What, then, must be done? First, costed manifestos must become mandatory with penalties for false declarations — the Election Commission already mandates them, but compliance is voluntary. Second, direct cash promises to specific voter groups must be treated as bribery under RPA Section 123. Third, no new schemes designed to seduce the voters should be allowed within six months of election notification. Fourth, parties must disclose whether schemes will be funded by new loans, existing or new taxes, or cuts to other programmes. Fifth, welfare linked to education, jobs and skill-building should be incentivised over consumption subsidies.
Let us say it clearly: Elections are not auctions, and India is not for sale. Democracy cannot survive if votes can be purchased legally. There is nothing “pro-poor” about reckless freebies. It is theft from development, fraud on the future, and corruption of consent.
One question I have often asked, and which has remained unanswered, is: Why do all the bright ideas for voters’ welfare come to the politicians’ minds only a few weeks before the elections?
India does not need less welfare — it needs honest welfare. It does not need fewer elections — it needs cleaner elections. The choice is simple: Vote banks or the nation. Because a democracy that runs on freebies will soon run out of both money and meaning.
The writer is former Chief Election Commissioner of India and author of four books on democracy, including his latest, Democracy’s Heartland: Inside the Battle for Power in South Asia
One question I have often asked, and which has remained unanswered, is: Why do all the bright ideas for voters’ welfare come to the politicians’ minds only a few weeks before the elections?
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