Smartphones & empowerment

The electoral consequences of distributing freebies have been dramatic: Naveen Patnaik has won four consecutive elections, while Nitish Kumar, Raman Singh and Shivraj Chouhan accomplished hat-tricks. There was therefore no earthly reason for Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh to have not delivered on the lowest-hanging pre-poll fruit of smartphones, now that five lakh jobs per year and eradicating opioid consumption are not easily achievable objectives for the state government. The party, after all, has to deliver on some promises in order to be fighting fit for the Lok Sabha elections.

The AAP’s state of continuous meltdown and the credibility crises of the Badals leave the field open for the Congress. Nothing less than a sweep will keep the CM’s chair secure for the Captain. No stranger to sudden twists in political destinies, the Captain would also be aware that his loss in the 2007 state Assembly elections was also because he may have promised fewer freebies than the rival Akalis. This was the time when the blurring began taking place between welfare freebies like subsidised grain, water or power and consumer durable freebies, of which Tamil Nadu was a pioneer. Karunanidhi’s combo of heavily-subsidised rice and TVs in 2006 metastasised into Jayalalithaa’s fan, mixie and washing machine. It didn’t matter that a quarter of them didn’t work and many were sold across the border in neighbouring states.

Once post-poll distribution of consumer durables was sanctified by court judgments and repeat electoral wins, the debate over morality of non-merit goods being financed from public money is all but over. But as the 40,000 students who will receive the first lot of free smartphones will realise, freebies are a temporary solution to the larger problem. Till then, they can claim to have been digitally empowered since the Net is accessed the most on smartphones and the Captain can assert that smartphones are merit goods. But, as the Congress realised in Andhra, it cannot beat anti-incumbency without attending to the basics, especially primary healthcare, education and the farm sector. Punjab has a great distance to cover on those fronts.