Bidding for Punjab votes

The Punjab Government has regularised the services of 27,000 employees, which is expected to put an additional annual burden of Rs 2,000 crore. AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has demanded immediate implementation of a Supreme Court direction for equal pay to regular and temporary employees. Punjab has also granted Rs 100 crore for burial grounds for Christians and Muslims. All of these are perfectly legitimate and desirable decisions, but perhaps suited to another world, and not the economy as obtaining at present in Punjab.

Curiously, all these wondrous decisions were not taken in the past 10 years of the current dispensation. The fact is Punjab cannot afford them as the government’s finances are in a mess. And this state has been achieved through decisions that were taken with full awareness of the consequences, like free power for agriculture. The government has now also announced Rs 102 crore for giving power connections to far-flung houses at the discretion of SAD ‘halqa in-charges’, besides free power to the Backward Classes. The state's employees have pay scales higher than the Central government's. It is another matter that thousands go without salary for months, or the power, health and education sectors are being rendered dysfunctional for want of funds.

Legitimate hiring reforms and required levels of public spending on education and health can happen only if the macro economy of the state is reformed first. Going by the offers being made by the government and promises by AAP and the Congress, there seems to be little hope of any course correction. SAD has given no indication it intends to cut subsidies, and none of the rivals have condemned that. Free electricity was a gift of elections a decade ago, this time it could well be loan waivers, overstaffing in government departments, and tax cuts. Freebies are a drug no category of voters is able to resist, and one that never fails to work. What the voter fails to realise is he is being bought off with money taken from his pocket.