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

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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.

View Slideshow

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

• Tamil Nadu Freebies Cost Taxpayers Dearly
• Tamil Nadu Challengers: AIADMK's Jayalalithaa

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