New Delhi: The Election Commission of India(ECI) has informed the Supreme Court that there is no precise definition for freebies and their benefits "as policy instrument in addressing differential vulnerabilities of certain sections cannot be underestimated".
The response of ECI has come over the court's suggestion to constitute an expert body with representatives and stakeholders to make recommendations in order to tackle the issue of freebies promised by the political parties in their election. The court had passed the order over a plea filed by BJP member Ashwini Upadhyay who had sought banning political parties from contesting elections and offered freebies as it costs a lot to the state leading to debt.
The ECI in its reply has said that broader appreciation and weightage of various factors need to be included in considering the issue. Factors like contours of promise, promise coverage is universal or limited to a class, prevailing context, the specific situation in an area, etc. need to be considered.
"Due regard to varying aspects of social, economic, political equity/inclusion, sustainability of finances and fiscal space in short/ medium/ long term and cross-sectoral implications such as environmental sustainability further add complexity to the understanding of the term freebies. It is also pertinent to mention that "Freebies" can have a different impact on society, economy, and equity depending upon the situation, context, and time period," read the affidavit.
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"The political parties/ candidates usually begin to campaign around a year prior and more intensely around 6 months prior to the expiry of the tenure of the house. It is in the realm of possibility to visualize situations where political parties make such promises that they know would be banned or adversely commented on by the regulatory authority.
This might in fact serve their purpose better by giving more publicity and mileage than actual implementation post-election. Actually depending upon sentiment analysis of the publicity, possibilities of dynamically tweaking of the banned announcement cannot be ruled out," read the affidavit. ECI has submitted that it can not be a part of the expert committee as it would not be appropriate to be a constitutional authority to be a part of a body comprising of government bodies and ministries.
Moreover, there are always elections going on in the country and any comment or opinion during the deliberations might disturb the level playing field.
