The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) on Wednesday, August 17, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court asking to be added as a party to the writ petition seeking a prohibition on political parties announcing freebies during an election campaign. In the impleadment motion filed before the apex court, the YSRCP has said that programmes that are implemented only to lure voters should be termed as freebies, but painting programmes of vast socio-economic importance implemented to alleviate prevailing distress with the same brush is an insult to the Constitutional mandate. The party was seeking to intervene as an applicant in the writ petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in the Supreme Court.
“Elected governments must be afforded the latitude to formulate interventions and determine their quantum and the time period for which they (the programmes) are to be implemented to achieve the desired socio-economic outcome. This is owing to the reason that it is the elected representatives that have a real understanding of the prevailing distress and the real reasons causing that distress,” the affidavit stated.
The party said in its affidavit that it is indeed true that there are some political parties that formulate and introduce programmes to reap political dividends and called for stringent action against such political parties as it would prevent political parties from behaving irresponsibly.
“On the other hand, there are political parties that have formulated programmes after careful deliberations and with absolute clarity as to the intended objectives of those programmes, made commitments to the voters prior to the elections and are implementing those committed programmes after coming to power with utmost sincerity despite several obstacles. Such political parties are working hard with an aim not devoid of merit. In this scenario, it would be unfair to generalize and describe those welfare programmes as freebies,” it added.
With respect to the implementation of welfare programmes by the present government in Andhra Pradesh, the party submitted that the state bifurcation in the year 2014 had caused widespread economic deprivation in the successor state of Andhra Pradesh, and owing to the inequitable reorganisation, the successor state of Andhra Pradesh inherited 58% of the combined state’s population but only 45% of the combined state’s revenues. Further, the policy paralysis in the state during the period 2014-19 resulted in many crucial sectors such as education, health and agriculture, demonstrating poor performance, the party has said.
NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development) All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey, 2016-17, indicated that indebtedness amongst agricultural households in Andhra Pradesh was as high as 76%, when compared to the national average of 47%, and with respect to education, the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) for Andhra in primary education was amongst the lowest in the country at 84.48, as against the national average of 99, the party said.
YSRCP stated in its affidavit that confronted with these circumstances, it was essential that the new government in which the people have reposed faith, implement impactful programmes to mitigate the distress.
The YSRCP has also taken objection to some state schemes being termed freebies. Terming it as highly objectionable, the YSRCP said, “The Andhra Pradesh State Government programmes such as Ammavodi, Rythu Bharosa, etc. have unfortunately been referred to as freebies. With total disregard to the purpose or the impact of these programmes, they are reduced to being described as populist measures.”
The YSRCP added that it would not be appropriate to regard the initiatives of the governments formulated in adherence to the principles fundamental to governance, enunciated in Part IV of the Constitution of India, in areas such as education, health, woman empowerment, agriculture, housing, poverty upliftment and support to the old and needy, as freebies.
Earlier, the DMK on August 16 moved an impleadment motion before the Supreme Court asking to be added as a party in the plea seeking that political parties be prohibited from promising freebies in election campaigns.