RBI report shows why BJP might stop talking about ‘freebies’
- Chandrima Banerjee
- TIMESOFINDIA.COMUpdated: Dec 28, 2023, 12:18 IST IST
RBI’s latest report on state budgets shows BJP-governed states increased subsidies just as much as other states. What does BJP actually think about subsidies?
When BJP was drafting its manifesto for the 2007 Gujarat assembly election, it promised to waive the dues of some two lakh farmers who had been accused of stealing power.
The BJP government in the state had come down hard on power theft — Gujarat had passed a law against power theft making it punishable with up to three years in prison in 2003 and in 2007, the Gujarat Electricity Board identified 578 cases of power theft worth Rs 2.4 crore and kept filing cases against those accused. Offering to cede some of those dues, BJP thought, would make political sense. When the manifesto went to Narendra Modi, chief minister at the time, he refused to allow the waivers. The proposal was gone, BJP still won the election and Modi became prime minister seven years later.
The BJP government in the state had come down hard on power theft — Gujarat had passed a law against power theft making it punishable with up to three years in prison in 2003 and in 2007, the Gujarat Electricity Board identified 578 cases of power theft worth Rs 2.4 crore and kept filing cases against those accused. Offering to cede some of those dues, BJP thought, would make political sense. When the manifesto went to Narendra Modi, chief minister at the time, he refused to allow the waivers. The proposal was gone, BJP still won the election and Modi became prime minister seven years later.
