Have freebies and bribes depoliticised voters?

Populist clientelism practised by Dravidian parties has co-opted citizens

Two days after former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was convicted in the disproportionate assets case, the air-conditioned State transport corporation buses plying in Chennai continued to play “Amma” advertisements on on-board television sets, portraying her as a mother figure of the State and saviour of the people who have benefited from various government schemes — cheap rice and drinking water, additional bus services, free laptops for poor students and so on — introduced by her.

Though the 66-year-old All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader has probably lost her chances of contesting elections for another 10 years because of her conviction, the wave of sympathy for her seems to be on the rise.

“There is no doubt that the culture of freebies has resulted in the depoliticisation of citizens in Tamil Nadu,” notes A. Narayanan, social activist and Editor of the Tamil magazine Paadam . “By providing candies to the voters in the form of free this and that, the masses have become dependent on the ruling class with the result that there is no true empowerment. This has resulted in the people not being able to critically evaluate their own leaders.”

The populist plank

The present AIADMK government’s efforts to launch populist schemes are only in line with the tradition perfected over the years by the Dravidian parties in the State. In his seminal study on populist mobilisation, Ethnicity and populist mobilisation, political parties, citizens and democracy in South India , political scientist Narendra Subramanian shows how both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its rival AIADMK consolidated their vote banks through populist schemes.

He observes that the Dravidian parties’ populist clientelism (giving material goods in return for electoral support) reached benefits more directly to the intermediate and lower strata, but constricted the autonomy of its beneficiaries. Such mobilisation of the masses, he says, by way of Dravidian populism not only restricted efforts to change property rights but also limited economic growth. While the DMK was most closely associated with the policy of quotas for intermediate castes in education and government jobs, the AIADMK popularised the scheme of free lunches for schoolchildren in all public schools, he says.

C. Lakshmanan, Assistant Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, regrets that the people of Tamil Nadu have deviated from the core ideology of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, the doyen of the Dravidian movement, who advocated rationalism. “Today, in the State, you will only find an irrational adherence to a personality cult both by party members and common citizens, marked by unquestioning acceptance of the dominance of their political leader,” he says. “There is a serious need to revisit Periyar’s ideas of rationalism, self-respect and eradication of caste prejudices for the people of the State who have now got used to accepting State munificence.”

Mr. Lakshmanan says both the Dravidian parties misused their political power, manipulating the State machinery to benefit private businesses owned by families and friends. He cited the example of how the DMK government’s scheme to distribute television sets free to the people went on to benefit the cable businesses of the Maran family.

Development economist Reetika Khera, however, warns that one should not confuse socio-economic rights (right to food through Amma canteens, MDM, PDS, etc) with freebies (mixers, gold chains and television sets). “Tamil Nadu — for all its problems — is a pioneer in the field of social policy. And it would be incorrect to assume that in the absence of such programmes, corruption will go away. Look at Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh where none of these rights is in place, and yet there is plenty of corruption — perhaps more than in Tamil Nadu,” she says.

Poll code

The Election Commission of India evolved the model code of conduct in 1968 restricting governments in power from announcing populist schemes ahead of elections. But it did not restrict such announcements from election manifestos of parties, says Naresh Gupta, who had served twice as Chief Electoral Officer in Tamil Nadu from 1998-2001 and 2005-2010. Though the issue of bribing of voters with freebies has been raised before the Supreme Court, it was not possible to prohibit such practices legally, he says.

“Bribing of voters ahead of elections is rampant but difficult to check as people who receive gifts never come forward and complain about it. Self-help groups are also being mobilised for influencing voters. Bribing of voters is even more brazen ahead of by-elections,” he says. “The only hope is in educating voters about their rights so they do not fall for the lure of money and freebies offered by political parties.”

But in a State where both the major political parties thrive on competitive populism, whether this will ever happen remains to be seen.