Cost of promises: on the Bihar election and poll-eve welfare measures
All this follows a familiar pattern of governments using welfare as an instrument of election-eve management of popular sentiment. The absence of any serious planning or vision behind such sporadic announcements is evident. They are often in response to the promises of a political rival. In Bihar, the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal has said that the Nitish Kumar government's welfare catalogue is a forced reaction to its promises of similar measures if voted to power. Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Mahayuti government rolled out a cash transfer scheme for women which helped it win. Later, the new government pruned the list, admitting that there were undeserving beneficiaries. Free electricity schemes now exist in several States. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often questioned the rationale of 'freebies', but arbitrary new schemes continue to proliferate. In Bihar, the scramble among parties is also in the context of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's advancing age. His party, the Janata Dal (United), is smaller than the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the election could further alter the dynamics of State coalition politics. The control of power had increasingly shifted from Mr. Kumar to the BJP in the last five years and the future of the JD(U) is set to decline. Competitive welfarism is all that remains in the toolkits of all parties to woo voters.
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