Unconditional cash transfers just before elections may help fight anti-incumbency, but it bleeds the economy and has limited long-term gains in real welfare of the people
A new pattern of freebie disbursement has spread its tentacles across the Indian polity, state elections at its core. Parties in govt, implement a plethora of freebies, just before elections. Voters enter polling booths, having already received freebies in kind, or as cash in their bank accounts.