{"id":39540,"date":"2025-03-21T20:22:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=39540"},"modified":"2025-03-21T20:22:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:52:37","slug":"vice-president-criticised-freebies-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/21-03-2025\/vice-president-criticised-freebies-culture","title":{"rendered":"Vice-President\u00a0Criticised\u00a0Freebies Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus :GS 2\/Governance&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar criticized the<strong> culture of &#8220;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-02-2025\/freebies-culture-in-india\"><strong>freebies<\/strong><\/a><strong>&#8221; in politics<\/strong>, calling for a parliamentary debate on the issue.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-02-2025\/freebies-culture-in-india\"><strong><u>Freebies<\/u><\/strong><\/a><strong>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There is no clear definition of what constitutes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-02-2025\/freebies-culture-in-india\">freebie<\/a> but they are goods, services, or financial aid distributed by political parties during elections to win votes, like free electricity, gas, cycles, loan waivers\u00a0 and cash transfers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges and Concerns\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-02-2025\/freebies-culture-in-india\">Freebies <\/a>put<strong> significant pressure on state budgets<\/strong>, leading to fiscal deficits and increasing public debt, contributing to long-term economic challenges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Spending on freebies <strong>reduces funding for critical sectors<\/strong> like infrastructure, education, and healthcare, hindering growth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-02-2025\/freebies-culture-in-india\">Freebies <\/a>can lead to <strong>inefficient use of resources <\/strong>and create dependency, without addressing the root causes of poverty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Competitive p<\/strong><strong>opulism<\/strong> (where parties escalate freebies), reduces policy efficiency and focuses on short-term solutions instead of long-term growth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Focusing on freebies shifts attention away from necessary policy reforms that could improve skills, education, and job creation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Constitution mandates that the State promote welfare and reduce inequalities (Article 38), but the issue arises when freebies strain state finances.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supreme Court observations\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court Bench\u00a0 criticized the practice of offering freebies before elections, stating it discourages people from working and harms the labor force.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Earlier The Supreme Court\u00a0 has also acknowledged that the distribution of freebies during elections influences voters and affects the fairness of elections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>View of experts\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao criticized the freebie culture in India, highlighting its negative impact on state finances.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized the culture of distributing &#8220;revris&#8221; (freebies) for votes, <strong>calling it short-term politics<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Suggestions\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There is a need for a national policy to ensure that government investments are used effectively for the greater good.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is a need for a national dialogue and code of conduct to address the freebie culture, with the Centre taking leadership.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Targeted welfare programs are more effective than untargeted freebies, addressing the needs of those who truly require help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source :TH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar criticized the culture of &#8220;freebies&#8221; in politics, calling for a parliamentary debate on the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39555,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39540\/revisions\/39555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}