The politics of giving: How Tamil Nadu is setting the template for India’s freebie contest

New Delhi: Indian politics seems to be in an era of freebies, with every political party offering cash doles or concessions ahead of elections. Last year, the NDA provided Rs 10,000 to more than 75 lakh women in Bihar ahead of the polls, which helped the alliance secure a landslide majority.Following this trend, the AIADMK and DMK are also betting ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. In what the DMK calls the largest single financial assistance to women in the state’s history, the government last month released Rs 5,000 to women under the Rs 131-crore ‘Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam’ scheme.

Meanwhile, the AIADMK’s manifesto promised to provide Rs 2,000 per month to all ration card holders under the ‘Kula Vilakku Scheme’, directly deposited into the bank accounts of women heads of households. The party also promised to provide “free refrigerators” to everyone with a rice ration card if returned to power.Interestingly, this is not the first time political parties have tried to woo voters with pre-poll gifts. Welfare politics in Tamil Nadu can be traced back to the Dravidian movement, which viewed the state as an active instrument of social justice.

Congress Chief Minister K Kamraj can be seen as the pioneer of populist projects in the state. He introduced a mid-day meal scheme and provided free uniforms to students.The program, which aims to tackle malnutrition and encourage low-income families to send their children to school, has significantly increased enrollment and attendance rates and reduced dropout rates.The Three Rice Prophets of Re 1In 1967, CN Annadurai promised to provide three-grain rice to Re 1 through the state’s Public Distribution System (PDS). This was despite the fact that the program proved costly and difficult for the government to sustain.After winning the election, Annadurai became the chief minister and implemented the scheme in some places for a while but later canceled it due to financial burden. However, this move made welfare a political tool that is still used today.Lunch meal plan experimentAIADMK founder MG Ramachandran became chief minister in 1977 and expanded welfare measures to increase school participation. The landmark mid-day meal program in 1982 was later expanded to become one of the largest such programs in the world, significantly increasing school enrollment for children from poor families.Subsequent governments led by M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa built on this model, adding benefits such as free uniforms, footwear and educational support.

By the late 1980s and 1990s, welfare schemes also included consumer goods, reaching a turning point in 2006 when the DMK promised free color TVs, rice at Rs 2 per kg, gas connections, free electricity and loan waivers for farmers and weavers. The TV scheme alone will cost around Rs 3,600 crore and cover nearly 4.5 million households.Amma Canteen Project by JayalalithaIn 2011, the pledge escalated into a bidding war. DMK offered mixers or grinders, AIADMK promised both; when it was proposed to provide free laptops to college students, Jayalalithaa extended it to high school students. Other items include uniforms, footwear, 20 kilograms of free rice per month and free cable TV.After returning to power, Jayalalithaa further expanded welfare, distributing mixers, grinders, fans, laptops, textbooks, goats and cows, mangalsutra gold, subsidized scooters and free electricity up to a certain limit to rural households.The Jayalalithaa government also launched the Amma Canteen scheme in 2013. These canteens aim to provide nutritious, hygienic food to the urban poor, daily wage earners and students at heavily discounted prices. Despite political changes in the state, canteens have largely continued to operate due to their immense popularity and the essential services they provided to the working class.By 2016, the DMK promised to provide milk at Rs 7 per liter, while the AIADMK countered with farm loan waivers, 100 units of free electricity, two-wheeler subsidies for women, and gold coins for brides-to-be.The evolution of social service programsNow, social justice programs appear to be moving toward cash transfers and universal benefits. The free bus travel service for women launched by DMK in 2021 has a monthly travel volume of Rs 4-5 crore, improving mobility of low-income women.The AIADMK has now proposed extending such benefits to men and providing Rs 2,000 per month to female household heads.However, financial issues cannot be ignored. Tamil Nadu is not a poor state, but it cannot work fiscal magic. The state has long viewed borrowing as a productive and growth-linked rationale, a rationale that can more readily support schemes such as breakfast subsidies and bus travel than promises such as a refrigerator for every ration card holder.Such programs have significant fiscal implications. According to reports, monthly cash transfers alone cost around Rs 36,000 crore annually, while total welfare expenditure in Tamil Nadu is already between Rs 45,000-50,000 crore annually. The state’s outstanding debt exceeds Rs 8 billion and annual interest payments are about Rs 40,000 crore.Tamil Nadu will conduct single-phase polling in all 234 constituencies on April 23, with counting scheduled for May 4.