It’s poll-dole time in Delhi

On the last day of 2024, former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal visited the Hanuman temple in Yamuna Bazaar. Not for darshan, nor to offer prasad, but to enrol the temple priest in the Mukhyamantri Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana. He had planned to launch this initiative at the Hanuman temple in Connaught Place, but protests by BJP workers at that location compelled a last-minute change of venue.

Simultaneously, current Delhi chief minister Atishi was overseeing the registration of granthis at Gurudwara Shri Sant Singh Maharaj in Karol Bagh. Just a day earlier, on 30 December, AAP had announced a monthly stipend of Rs 18,000 to temple priests and gurudwara granthis in Delhi. (A similar scheme for masjid imams has been in place for some time, though payments under it have been delayed for months.)

With the Delhi assembly elections scheduled for February, Kejriwal aims to secure victory through a series of freebies on an unprecedented scale. The list of subsidies and benefits is extensive. Electricity is free for those households consuming up to 200 units, while those consuming up to 400 units get a 50 per cent subsidy. This scheme alone costs the exchequer Rs 3,600 crore annually. Additionally, every family receives 2,000 litres of free water monthly, which adds another Rs 500 crore to the budget.

Women are offered free travel on DTC buses, costing around Rs 440 crore per year. Beyond these, the government funds free pilgrimage programmes for the elderly and provides stipends under the Samman Nidhi scheme to imams. While these welfare measures remain popular among certain sections, AAP’s growing reliance on subsidies and its shifting political strategies reflect a party grappling with the challenges of sustaining its appeal amidst mounting scrutiny and electoral pressure.

After a decade in power, AAP faces the significant challenge of combating anti-incumbency. Free water and electricity have been its hallmark achievements, with the people of Delhi hoping for improvements in education and healthcare through initiatives like the flagship mohalla clinics project and revamped government schools. Those hopes are now fading. The school makeover appears to have stagnated and mohalla clinics are facing staff shortages, with positions lying vacant and no active recruitment.

AAP fears Dalit and minority voters will shift allegiance to the Congress. In an apparent bid to counteract this, the party has sought to expand its appeal to the BJP’s Hindu voter base with measures like the Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana. In response to the BJP’s frequent accusations that it garners support from Bangladeshi ‘infiltrators’ and Rohingyas for electoral gains, the Delhi government recently issued a notification barring enrolment of children of migrants to Delhi government schools.

BJP leaders promptly attacked the party as ‘chunavi (electoral) Hindu’ who had reversed earlier positions. Undeterred, AAP continues to double down on its strategy of offering extensive freebies and has been making fresh promises almost daily.

On 12 December, Kejriwal pledged that women would receive a monthly stipend of Rs 2,100 after elections under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman that initially promised Rs 1,000 (yet to be implemented). Enrolment began the next day, with 1.2 million forms collected thus far, each prominently featuring Kejriwal’s photograph and AAP’s election symbol, the broom.

Congress leader and former MP Sandeep Dikshit criticised the move, arguing that collecting personal data under the guise of such schemes is unjustifiable. A contradiction arose when a public notice from the Delhi government appeared in several newspapers, stating that launching any such scheme was fraudulent.

In Punjab, AAP had made comparable promises before the assembly elections. After three years in power, those commitments remain unfulfilled.

While promising freebies has long been a feature of electoral politics, the growing trend of incumbent parties — with access to the state exchequer— announcing such schemes just before elections raises serious ethical concerns. These announcements give the ruling party an undue advantage, undermining the fairness of the electoral process.

A striking example of this was seen in Maharashtra, where the government approved a cabinet decision to provide Rs 1,500 per month to women. Just ahead of the assembly elections, the administration deposited three months’ worth of payments into women’s bank accounts.

The move influenced the outcome, helping the Mahayuti alliance secure a comfortable victory in the state elections, when it had taken a beating in the Lok Sabha elections just a few months earlier. (Another matter that there were grave doubts about the legitimacy of the entire poll process.)

Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP leveraged the Ladli Behen Yojana to sway voters ahead of the elections. Aren’t these schemes akin to offering bribes to voters? And what about registering them through enrolment forms? Is it to mark them as beneficiaries, who might then face consequences if they do not oblige with their votes?

These questions have been raised earlier too, but summarily brushed aside. Twenty years ago, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court in the case of S. Subramaniam Balaji vs. Government of Tamil Nadu. The apex court ruled that implementing such schemes does not constitute bribery. Two years ago, another PIL was filed on the same issue. During the hearings, the Election Commission submitted an affidavit stating that it does not have the authority to regulate such promises; that in doing so, it would have to exceed its jurisdiction.

Political parties may all be complicit in the practice, but a system that winks at unethical pre-poll blandishments effectively undermines the discovery of the people’s will, their verdict, and takes away from voters their agency to hold incumbent governments responsible for (mis)governance. The practice will also eventually harm all political parties, including those that benefit from these bribes in the short term. After all, a party that seeks to gain an electoral edge through such tactics in one state might find itself at a disadvantage in another where its rivals adopt an identical strategy.

It is imperative to build a broad political consensus on regulating the announcement and implementation of pre-election welfare schemes. While governments must retain the ability to introduce and execute policies for the welfare of the people, a clear framework is necessary to ensure these policies are not misused as tools for electoral gain.

Is the answer to this riddle a legal provision that bars the announcement or implementation of welfarist doles in the last year preceding an election? The Election Commission of India or another independent body tasked with maintaining electoral integrity could enforce the rule, but, of course, the integrity of said authority would also have to be above any doubt.

If these measures are not put in place, fair electoral competition — the very foundation of democracy — is at risk. The electoral battlefield must remain impartial, with incumbent parties competing on their governance record and their challengers on their alternative vision, their manifestos and their credibility in the eyes of the people. In the absence of these reforms, democracy is being daily mocked as a contest of doles, rather than who is most fit to govern.