Vice-President proposes national policy, structured debate on freebies

Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday proposed a national policy on freebies and suggested a structured debate on the issue in the House.

Addressing members during zero hour, Dhankhar said, “We need a national policy to ensure investments are targeted and yield the required results.”

Terming freebies -- a rampant practice during elections -- as a serious issue, Dhankhar said, “This House needs to deliberate on placatory mechanisms and appeasement because the country grows with capex. Electoral process is such that these freebies have become electoral allurements and thereafter the governments that came in saddle found themselves in an uncomfortable position, so much so that they wanted to revisit their thoughts.”

The VP stressed urgent need for a national policy on the issue so that all investments of the government in any form are used in a structured manner for larger good.

He also batted for direct farm subsidies without intermediaries, saying that was the practice in the developed world. “In the US, which has one fifth farm households than us, the income of an average farming household is more than that of the general household because farmers there get direct subsidies,” he said.

Dhankhar also flagged the lack of uniformity in perks and perquisites given to lawmakers across states.

“Our constitution provided for Legislature, MPs, MLAs, but did not prescribe uniform mechanisms. So legislatures in several states give perks and salaries to members of the Assembly, much beyond what MPs get and even the pension variation for a former member of the Assembly is on a scale of 1 to 10,” he said.