In politics, someone calls himself a rightist, someone calls himself a leftist, someone shows the ideology of a centrist (neither rightist nor leftist). Now questions are being raised whether gradually the elections will not be based on ideology but only on libertarian thinking? Voting for assembly elections is to be held in Delhi on 5th February, for this all political parties are campaigning vigorously. But everyone’s campaign is full of promises of freebies.
AAP, BJP and Congress have so far announced freebies worth about Rs 21 thousand crores in Delhi. Delhi’s budget is Rs 78 thousand 800 crore and in the next few days the budget can cross Rs 25 thousand crore only due to free promises. It seems that instead of elections, there is a bidding for votes. Earlier, parties used to present their vision of development before the public by issuing manifestos and made all the promises in the same.
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Promises of freebies for students in Delhi
But in Delhi elections, all the parties are making promises to the public in instalments. Seeing each other’s range of free promises, they exaggerate their promises. Like Arvind Kejriwal holds a press conference every day at 12 o’clock and announces some new announcement. Similarly, BJP has brought its manifesto in two parts in Delhi, Part-1 and Part-2. When Arvind Kejriwal promised free bus travel for students, Congress promised to give apprenticeship stipend of Rs 8500 per month to unemployed youth. Now BJP has announced to provide free education from KG to PG for needy students in government educational institutions.
BJP has also promised to provide direct assistance of Rs 15,000 to the competitive students, free bus travel if they go to appear for the exam twice and money to fill the forms for the two exams. Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal has brought a new promise for the Dhobi community of Delhi. He said that if the Aam Aadmi Party government is formed, then Dhobi Social Welfare Board will be formed in Delhi. He promised to provide water and electricity at domestic rates to the Dhobhi community and to regularize the shops where they press clothes. At the same time, BJP promised to create a welfare board to help those working as house helps, life insurance of Rs 10 lakh for auto owners and accident insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh, scholarship to children. Apart from this, BJP has promised assistance of Rs 21 thousand to pregnant women and six months paid maternity leave.
Subsidy budget in Delhi reaches Rs 11000 crore
Only a few days are left for the election campaign to end in Delhi, but the series of promises by political parties is not stopping. Why is there so much emphasis of all the parties on the promises of freebies in Delhi? Because the population here is less compared to other states. It is easy to implement free schemes here and attract people through it. That is why the promise that Aam Aadmi Party makes in Delhi remains unfulfilled in Punjab, because the population in Punjab is more, so the expenditure is more. Similarly, whatever promise BJP is making in Delhi, it does not implement it in UP, because there the population is more and the expenditure is more. However, the burden of expenditure due to freebies does not reduce on Delhi’s treasury either. Understand this with an example – Till 2014-15, only Rs 1155 crore was being spent on subsidy in Delhi. Then when Aam Aadmi Party government was formed and free schemes were implemented, the subsidy increased to Rs 3018 crore in 2015-16.
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The subsidy budget in Delhi reached Rs 11000 crore in 2024-25. In 10 years, the subsidy has increased by 607% to fulfill the free promises made to the public. Now look at the expenditure on free electricity, the expenditure on electricity subsidy in 2014-15 was Rs 292 crore. After the coming of Aam Aadmi Party government, it increased to Rs 1443 crore and in 2024-25 this expenditure will reach Rs 3600 crore. That means an increase of 1133% in 10 years. As more people are getting benefits, the cost of subsidy is also increasing. Currently in Delhi, electricity bill is waived up to 200 units and half up to 400 units. Congress has promised to waive electricity bills up to 300 units. If the promise of 300 units has to be fulfilled then Rs 1000 crore more will have to be spent on subsidy. That means the electricity subsidy budget will be Rs 4600 crore.
Delhi Jal Board subsidy budget Rs 500 crore
Currently, under the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, up to 20 thousand liters of water is free, even though its quality is very poor. BJP has promised that it will continue the electricity and water scheme in future also. But also consider water subsidy through Delhi Jal Board. This expenditure was ₹ 21 crore in 2014-15, which reached ₹ 190 crore in 2015-16, now it has increased to ₹ 500 crore. That means an increase of 2300% in 10 years. Before the 2020 elections in Delhi, the Kejriwal government had started free bus travel for women. Due to this the subsidy expenditure has also increased. In 2019-20, the DTC subsidy was around Rs 44 crore, which has now increased to Rs 200 crore, i.e. an increase of 349% in five years. If the subsidy expenditure continues to increase like this, will the government’s earnings i.e. revenue be less than the expenditure? Will it not happen? Imagine what will happen then? Then how will the public get the necessary facilities?
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The situation is such that in Delhi, where the government currently has to spend Rs 11,000 crore from the budget on subsidies, now all three parties have made such promises of giving cash to women only, the expenditure of which alone goes beyond Rs 11,000 crore. Could. The Finance Department of Delhi itself estimates that if Rs 1000 is given every month to the women of Delhi under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana, then Rs 4560 crore will have to be spent annually for this. While Arvind Kejriwal has now promised to give Rs 2100 per month, it is estimated that Rs 9500 crore will have to be spent annually from the government treasury. Whereas BJP-Congress have promised to give Rs 2500 every month to women, due to which Rs 11400 crore will have to be given annually from the government treasury.
21000 crores will be spent only on freebies in Delhi?
Delhi’s budget currently is Rs 78 thousand 800 crore. According to this, from the promises made by political parties so far, Rs 21 thousand crore will go only to complete the free schemes, the remaining amount of more than Rs 45 thousand crore will go towards salary-pension and other items, so think roads, bridges. , Where will the money come from to spend on cleaning Yamuna, drains, sewage, pollution prevention, etc.? Political parties in Delhi want to take women’s votes only in the name of financial help. But when it comes to giving equal participation to women in politics compared to men, all parties seem to be lagging behind.
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Aam Aadmi Party has fielded women candidates on only 9 out of 70 assembly seats in Delhi, i.e. 13% participation. Congress has given only 7 tickets out of 70 to women, i.e. 10% participation. BJP has fielded women candidates on 9 out of 68 seats i.e. a little more than 13% participation. Be it AAP, Congress or BJP, all three parties support the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament and call it historic, but think of empowering women only on the basis of cash scheme. That is why no party in Delhi has given 33 percent tickets to women.
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