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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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Freebies Must Go

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-04-05 03:33:06

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

It is regrettable that something that should be clearly visible to top politicians has to be spelt out for them by bureaucrats. It was left to top central bureaucrats to flag the rising cost of populist schemes and how they could lead the states to economic disaster in the interaction with Prime Minister Modi. But the secretaries of various departments reportedly flagged the schemes in Punjab, Delhi, Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, showing that they were not comfortable with raising the issue of BJP-ruled states indulging in such profligacy. It is no secret that the BJP is cultivating a 'labarthi' vote bank in UP that will override caste calculations. It pushed back anti-incumbency in the state by riding on the back of its welfarist policies and further promised to give free electricity to farmers, two free LGP cylinders and free scooters to college-going girls. The opposition is not far behind and AAP promised free power and direct cash transfer to women in Punjab while TMC promised double of what it is giving in Bengal to women and students to lure the Goa voters.

All political parties have veered around to the view that instant gratification in the form of freebies that write-off charges, provide things for free or put money in hand is the best way to get votes. But they do not calculate the costs that these schemes entail. The funds for these populist schemes are always at the expense of other, more urgently needed projects. When people get freebies now, they deprive themselves of better health, better education for their children and better life. States keep borrowing to fund these political excesses and the service cost of these loans falls on the people. Punjab is already a financial basket case and the promises made by APP, if kept, will lead it to disaster unless income rises miraculously. . Calling it a "serious issue", the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Election Commission and the Centre when a PIL was filed against such freebies ahead of the elections in five states recently.It has to be understood that having more and better colleges is more important than giving scooters to girls. The country benefits if the first is done while only the party benefits from the second. 

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