Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Article in Wall Street Journal on 11th April 2011

Monday, April 11, 2011

The A-Hed
APRIL 11, 2011

It's Not the Economy, Stupid, It's the Free Blenders and Sheep

Indian Pols Woo Voters With Giveaways of Cows, Gold, Cable; a Laptop on Every Lap

By AMOL SHARMA

Amol Sharma/The Wall Street Journal

Senthil Vadivu says she wants a blender and is supporting the DMK because it followed through on the promise to deliver a TV last time.

VILLUPURAM, India—Indian politicians have a long tradition of wooing voters with promises of handouts like grain subsidies. But in this month's elections in the state of Tamil Nadu, politicians are plowing some new ground: They are promising to give away blenders, sheep, bus passes, gold necklaces and cable-TV hookups if they win.

Despite being one of India's better-performing states and its auto-industry hub, Tamil Nadu has its share of serious issues to debate this year, including how to halt corruption and fix electricity shortages. But the race between the two leading parties has boiled down mostly to a contest of who can offer a longer list of government-financed freebies.

The incumbent party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or DMK, led by 86-year-old former screenwriter and current Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, has promised blenders or grinders for poor families, laptops for engineering students and an insurance program for fishermen. The party is also promising washing machines and refrigerators for unspecified recipients.

A mixie

The main opposition party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or AIADMK, led by former film star J. Jayalalithaa, upped the ante with its list of handouts: a blender, a grinder and a fan for all women; four free sheep for poor families; four grams of gold for poor brides (for the necklaces brides wear on their wedding day); 60,000 cows for 6,000 villages and free cable-TV connections for all.

One independent candidate is offering voters a Tata Nano car (worth about $2,200 apiece) if he's elected.

"This is how politicians take people for a ride," said Bernard D'Sami, a political analyst and history professor at Loyola College in Chennai. "The real issues are being sidelined but freebies are given importance."

Ahead of the April 13 poll, many voters in this district say they'll happily accept any gifts the politicians send their way, though some feel the giveaways are foolish.

"If you keep doing this, people will become lazy. They should focus on solving problems for the long-term, not giving freebies," said D. Arockiasamy, a 64-year-old rice farmer who barely earns enough to feed his family from a one-acre plot.

Mr. Karunanidhi and Ms. Jayalalithaa have taken turns running the state over the past two decades and both fashion themselves as champions of the poor. But campaigning took a weird turn in the 2006 state elections, Mr. D'Sami says, when the DMK won largely because it promised to give voters free color televisions. It has delivered over 16 million TVs since then to Tamil Nadu households.

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Dibyangshu Sarkar/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Voters stood in queue outside a polling booth in Chennai, May 10, 2004.

This time, the DMK may be politically vulnerable. One of its top officials, the former national telecommunications minister, has been arrested and charged with corruption for allegedly rigging the sale of nationwide mobile-phone spectrum in 2008. He has denied wrongdoing and is currently in jail, awaiting trial.

Still, Ms. Jayalalithaa of the rival AIADMK party appears determined not to be outdone in the great giveaway. In the face of DMK's promise of laptops for engineering students, she pledges laptops for 11th-graders, 12th-graders and all college students.

V. Purushothama, 27, who lives with his parents and brother in a 200-square-foot, mud-walled home in Mazhayampet village, received a free TV from the DMK last year. However, one recent afternoon he had it tuned to "Jaya TV," an AIADMK-controlled channel where Ms. Jayalalithaa was on-screen listing the goodies voters can expect if they elect her.

He likes the sound of her free laptops and cable hookups, but the unemployed college graduate says a better gift would be a full-time job. "If they are giving away freebies, sure, I will take them, but what is the point of a freebie without a job?" Mr. Purushothama says.

From India Real Time

Blenders—known in India as "mixies"—and grinders are coveted because they are used to prepare south Indian staples like rice cakes and coconut chutney. Mixies and grinders cost about $50 and $100, respectively.

Senthil Vadivu, 32, who runs a small tea shop in Thaduthatkondoor village, says she would like one of the blenders and is supporting the DMK because it followed through on the promise to deliver a TV last time around. She said Ms. Jayalalithaa "has only now started promising freebies—it is too late."

An AIADMK spokesman didn't return a call seeking comment.

There's so much on offer for free that retailers are feeling the pinch. At a local electronics outlet called "Beautiful Store," owner Ariya Palani says TV sales ground to a halt the past three years. He fears the same will happen to mixies and grinders. "If the government is giving them away, why would anyone buy from a store?" he said.

Some activists are trying to put a stop to the gimme-fest, including Chennai-based lawyer S. Subramaniam Balaji. He argues that handouts constitute bribes, he says—a quid pro quo for votes—and misuse of public funds. Promised handouts such as these would be paid for with state-government money.

Mr. Balaji filed a complaint last month with India's Election Commission against all parties offering freebies and is seeking the disqualification of all candidates from those parties. He has a separate case pending before the Supreme Court against the state government and the DMK that he hopes will clear up the law on gift-giving by parties.

Indian election law explicitly prohibits candidates from giving or promising gifts to individual voters to get their support. But election officials say there's no clear ban on making promises to large sections of the population through, for example, party manifestos.

The political parties say there is no legal issue because they aren't promising gifts, but welfare programs. In addition to gadgets, both parties say they will give away a certain amount of free rice to poor families.

Speaking about the blenders and grinders, DMK spokesman T.K.S. Elangovan says, "There are people in rural areas who still use the hand-grinding method" when preparing food. "It's a lifestyle improvement."

—Vibhuti Agarwal contributed to this article.

Write to Amol Sharma at amol.sharma@wsj.com

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Complaint against freebies

http://www.google.co.in/#q=DMK%2C%20PMK%20poll%20promises%20are%20bribe%3A%20Chennai%20advocate%20files%20complaint&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=709&prmd=ivnsu&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=nw&fp=bf44e86cd8f82e79

Bloomberg interview

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-28/stalin-hands-out-laptops-as-indian-politicians-ramp-up-campaigns.html

Bloomberg

Stalin Hands Out Laptops as Indian Politicians Ramp Up Campaigns

By Andrew MacAskill and Ganesh Nagarajan - Mar 28, 2011 9:24 AM GMT+0530

The DMK is part of the coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg

With pledges to dole out laptops to students and food blenders to housewives, the ruling party in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu kicked off its re-election bid in the same generous way it captured power five years ago.

Leaders of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said they will also hand out color televisions and bus passes for people over 60. Last week, they promised to buy homes for slum dwellers if victorious in state assembly polls beginning April 13.

“In every election, the DMK takes bribing voters to a new level,” said Bibhu Mohapatra of the India Development Foundation, an organization based in the federal capital, New Delhi, that campaigns for better governance. “This is now part of the political process in Tamil Nadu. Voters expect it.”

While about one-fifth of Indian voters surveyed in 2009 by the Centre for Media Studies, also based in Delhi, said that politicians or party workers had offered incentives for their vote in the past 10 years, in Tamil Nadu the figure was a third, the second-highest level in the country. The DMK is part of the coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Kanimozhi, daughter of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, helps run the governing party with her half-brother M.K. Stalin and denies it is guilty of buying votes. “People need these welfare schemes,” Kanimozhi, who uses one name, said in an interview March 24. “Election promises are made all over the world.” Neither Kanimozhi nor her party have been charged with any wrongdoing by officials in connection with this year’s poll.

Her party says it will distribute laptops to all students from groups at the lower end of India’s caste hierarchy who are in their first year at university or government colleges.

‘Women’s Recreation’

Not to be upstaged, the DMK’s chief rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, said in its manifesto it will give portable computers to all students aged 16 to 18. Families will receive a fan, a blender, and a grinder, it said. Those living below the poverty line will get an extra bonus: four free sheep.

At the last state elections in 2006, the DMK offered free color televisions in the name of “women’s recreation and general knowledge.” Since then the party has bought 16 million sets for about $827 million of taxpayers’ money, enough for one in every four people in the state, according to Tamil Nadu’s interim budget published last month.

Handouts included in party manifestos are not barred by election rules, said T.S. Krishnamurthy, who served as India’s chief election commissioner for 15 months up to May 2005. The Election Commission can only prevent the practice during the period between the vote being called and the announcement of the result, he said in an interview March 24.

Mass Poverty

“If you promised a dam, a bridge or a school, it’s for the public good, but when you promise something for a section of voters, in my opinion, it’s a bribe,” Krishnamurthy said.

While Tamil Nadu, with a per capita income of about $1,000 in 2009, according to the government’s statistics department, is prosperous in comparison with other Indian states, about 22 percent of rural households don’t have access to electricity, a study by New York’s Columbia University found. It is home to more than 12 million people -- greater than the population of Portugal -- living on less than $2 a day, the World Bank says.

“Nobody is dying of starvation, the standard of living is reasonable,” Kanimozhi said. To tackle the power shortage, “we have come up with lots of projects in the last five years and by 2012 it will be under control.”

Sari Stampede

Politicians handing out saris to voters in Uttar Pradesh triggered a stampede in 2004 that killed 21 women. In other regions such as Andhra Pradesh parties have pledged free power and cheap rice to poor voters. State assemblies will also be elected in Assam, West Bengal and Kerala in April and May.

Subramaniam Balaji, a Tamil lawyer, filed a complaint to the Election Commission on March 22 claiming that the DMK is breaking rules that prevent parties from paying for votes. He said DMK promises would cost 200,000 rupees ($4,500) per family over five years and that the money would be better spent on poverty-reduction programs or building roads and power grids.

“The government cannot afford to fritter away its money,” Balaji said in an interview in Chennai. “The chief justice of Madras High Court came to a local court recently where there were no tables, no chairs, no bathrooms, no water. And the government is proposing to throw away money on these luxury goods. What on earth is going on?”

Parties led by film stars and scriptwriters have dominated politics in Tamil Nadu for four decades, using cinema to promote Tamil culture and language and win support. DMK head and Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi wrote plays and film scripts, while AIADMK leader Jayalalitha was formerly a popular actress.

Former Telecommunications Minister Andimuthu Raja, a member of the DMK, resigned from the government in November and is now in jail after being accused of benefitting telecommunications companies in the 2008 award of licenses to run mobile-phone services. He denies any wrongdoing.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Macaskill in New Delhi at amacaskill@bloomberg.net Ganesh Nagarajan at gnagarajan1@bloomberg.net

Complaint against all parties offering freebies

S. Subramaniam Balaji S-42, TNHB Golden Enclave

Advocate 180, Luz Corner, (Behind

Navasakthi Vinayakar

Temple, Mylapore

Chennai – 600 004.

ssubramaniambalaji@gmail.com Ph: 098405 66877

through E-mail and Speed post Ack. Due

29-3-2011

The Chief Electoral Officer,

Tamil Nadu,

Fort St. George, Chennai -9.

C.C. The Election Commission of India

Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road,

New Delhi – 1.

Respected Sir,

Sub: Complaint – (a ) Against the promise / offer of freebies by DMK led alliance for and on behalf of all the alliance partners, AIADMK led alliance for and on behalf of all the alliance partners and also by the other parties and independent candidates at the Tamil Nadu Assembly election 2011 - Bribery amounting to Corrupt Practice under sec 123 (1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 read with section 171-B(2) of the Indian Penal Code –– seeking Disqualification ab initio as it is a violation of the oath under Schedule III (VII A) as enumerated under Article 173 (a) of the Constitution of India on two counts, namely (1) as a private gift is not a public purpose and therefore Ultra vires the Article 282 of the Constitution of India and (2) an express bribe under section 123 of the R.P. Act cannot become a Sovereign function of the State even under the garb of Legislative sanction- request immediate penal action – Regarding.

Ref: (1) My earlier complaint dated 24-4-2006 and sent to you through Email and also registered post on the subject of free colour television (bribe) promise at the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2006.

(2) My earlier complaint dated 10-12-2007 on the subject of free colour television (bribe) promise at the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2008.

(3) Your reply dated 1^st February 2008 in No. 4/RTI/01/2008/JS II/ 1535.

(4) My earlier complaint dated 10-4-2008 on the subject matter of free colour television (bribe) promise at the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2008.

(5) My earlier complaint dated 22-3-2011.

****

1. I am a practicing Advocate at Chennai and am lodging this complaint as a sequel to my above referred complaints dated 24-4-2006, 10-12-2007, 10-4-2008 and 22-3-2011 which may be read as part and parcel of this complaint.

2. The issue of offering / promising a household accessory of (1) Grinder / Mixie / fan, (2) free bus pass to senior citizens (3) free cash grant for women self help groups (4) free houses worth more than Rs. 1 Lakh (5) free laptops for students (6) free 4 grams Gold and marriage expenses for girls at marriage (7) free rice (8) free Cash of Rs. 1,500 Per month per family (9) free refrigerator and washing machine (10) free 5 Sovereign chain for women (11) free cows and 4 goats and (12) free Nano car etc promised by the DMK led Alliance, the AIADMK led alliance, other parties and independents to induce the voters to vote for their candidates or themselves is nothing but a bribe under section 123(1) of the R.P. Act and also a promise of an unconstitutionality at an election, which is a violation of the oath taken at the time of filing the nomination. The candidates of the parties that have promised / offered this wholesale bribe by printing it on behalf, and also the alliance candidates who are riding along with them, have neither condemned nor disowned this wholesale bribe and are therefore estopped from disowning the said bribe offer / promise at a later date, are therefore liable to be penalized for the same.

3. Moreover, the political party that is putting up the candidate is nothing but a body of individual citizens, an association of persons that includes the candidates and therefore the candidates are estopped from stating at a later date that the manifesto promise/ offer of bribe does not bind them or was not offered / promised on their behalf. A large scale printed offer / promise of individual inducements / incentives with an intent to interfere with the duty of a citizen to cast his vote without fear or favour has been tampered with by these freebie offers / promises and the ingredients of section 13 of the PCA would apply to the instant case, where the citizen is discharging his duty under the Constitution. This freebie offer has completely vitiated the election atmosphere now that people have stopped buying mixie or grinder and are awaiting for it to be given by the new Government. If such large scale bribes are allowed to be pedded by your office, thus undermining the solemn process of elections and resulting in derogation of the Constitution of India, our nation would not remain a Sovereign Republic, but would soon become a Banana Republic.

4. Kindly read my earlier complaint dated 22-3-2011 and these candidates have already attracted disqualification under the R.P. Act for having peddled a bribery and unconstitutionality at this election.

5. Therefore kindly take steps to disqualify all the candidates of these alliances, parties and also the independents who promised such a bribe and an unconstitutionality. whether they emerge victorious or not. Disqualifying about 700 odd candidates out of a population of more than 7,00,00,000 would not do any harm to the society, but would only go to cleanse the system by getting rid of such corrupt and self serving politicians. The office of the Election Commission has to elevate the standards at election and not allow such bribes by unscrupulous and cantankerous politicians to hijack the elections and undermine the solemn process of elections that sustains our democracy.

6. As the Constitutional authority in charge of the General Elections in the State of Tamil Nadu, I therefore request you to initiate immediate action against all the candidates who have offered / promised freebies, whether they belong to a party or the alliance partners or an independent and take steps to disqualify them for their free gift offers / promises and also initiate appropriate proceedings to recover the election expenses incurred by your Commission and also appropriate Criminal proceedings in the interests of Democracy as enshrined in the Constitution of India.

“ Eternal vigilance is the price of democracy”

Thanking you

Yours Sincerely,

S. Subramaniam Balaji

BalajiactionBlog