Recently, Congress rode to power in Karnataka by promising the transfer of Rs 2,000 every month to the eldest female member of each household. Some conditions have been attached by the Siddaramaiah government. Nevertheless, it must be said that the poll promise played a crucial role in helping the party defeat the BJP.
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP government is doing something similar to woo women voters ahead of the December 2023 Assembly elections. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that his government will be transferring Rs 1,000 to women under a scheme named the Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana. As many as 1.25 crore women will benefit from the scheme.
As much as Rs 12,000 will be credited to their accounts by this time next year. The scheme has been touted to be pro-women empowerment.
There is a view that the freebie culture is going to prove detrimental in the long run. "The freebie politics were kicked off in 2013-14 by the populist AAP. The Congress party emulated Kejriwal's party in 2019 by promising a scheme named NYAY. Rahul Gandhi's party has lately started promising the disastrous Old Pension Scheme after the success in the Himachal Pradesh elections. The recent Karnataka experiment further aggravated the freebie culture. The BJP is now joining the trend," a social media user lamented.
