Congress's manifesto in Chhattisgarh is a populist, poll-eve gimmick

Election manifestos in India promise voters much more than what is actually deliverable. There is, in effect, a mismatch between what a party knows it will be able to implement and the rhetoric it puts out in the run-up to elections. What should have been a sacrosanct, serious exercise, with a party outlining its vision and policies in an official document, becomes just a poll-eve gimmick, just as easily forgotten once the electoral exercise is over. But manifestos still serve to define a normative framework of what is generally desirable, even if not precisely what would be delivered. Which is why the Congress party’s manifesto in Chhattisgarh is a huge disappointment.

The Congress, seeking a comeback after a decade, has announced a huge increase in the price for paddy procurement, free power for water pumps and zero-interest crop loans. These suggest that fiscal discipline does not matter, that sustainability of the power sector is not a matter of public concern, that interest rates are costs that can be arbitrarily raised or lowered by the state at will. True, political parties are free to promise voters the sun and the moon, in their wisdom. But such reckless populism as is contained in this manifesto insults the intelligence and understanding of the people of Chhattisgarh.

The people have enough sense to know that so-called free lunches have hidden costs and that these costs would be extracted from them in some other fashion. Typically, this takes the form of dysfunctional governance, blackouts and brownouts, erratic water supply and unhealthy banks that see farm loans as a burden rather than as an attractive business they have to compete for. As a national party that aspires to rule one of the world’s largest economies in the midst of global complexity, the Congress can ill-afford irresponsible populism.