An Indian Politician Tempts Voters With Free Television for Every Household
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NEW DELHI – India’s voters are used to being wooed through their wallets, but one party’s offer of a “free color TV set for every household” has excited the interest of even the most skeptical.
The pledge, which is a manifesto commitment of a Tamil nationalist party, DMK, which is fighting local elections in Tamil Nadu, has provoked a heated debate on ethics.
Its leader, M Karunanidhi, whose family owns one of the state’s most successful networks, Sun TV, said that the television sets would be for the “recreation and general knowledge” of the poor.
His opponent, J Jayalalithaa, a retired film star who makes full use of entertainment in his campaign, said that such largesse was a sop too far and the equivalent of “giving away the moon.”
Indian elections frequently bring extravagant promises. Over the years these have included free saris, power for farmers and reserved occupations for individual castes and minority religious groups.
During the 2004 general election, 22 women died in Lucknow when a Hindu nationalist party, BJP, gave away saris to “celebrate the birthday” of one of its functionaries. A stampede broke out when 25,000 women turned up but there were only 15,000 saris to give out.
The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Jayalalithaa is offering free bicycles in this election. But the offer of a free television set has taken the giveaway game to a new level. Under the electoral rules, the DMK sweetener would not be illegal as long as the television sets were not given out before the vote for the state assembly on May 8.
The scheme’s success will depend on whether the DMK can convince voters that the offer is financially viable – something that will not be easy. Estimates of the cost of providing a free television set to the estimated 8.5 million households that do not have one, range from about $350 million to $1.1 billion based on the most basic model, costing 6,000 rupees ($140).
When challenged, the DMK leader refused to back down, saying that the plan was viable and that 530,000 of Tamil Nadu’s poorest families would be among the first to receive sets.
The fact that the vast majority of them have neither proper houses nor electricity seems not to matter.
