{"id":494029,"date":"2023-11-14T19:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T13:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=494029"},"modified":"2023-11-15T14:36:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T09:06:13","slug":"freebies-shivraj-singh-chouhan-bhupesh-baghel-ashok-gehlot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/india-news\/freebies-shivraj-singh-chouhan-bhupesh-baghel-ashok-gehlot\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating the model code of conduct: Candidates can\u2019t give cash but governments can"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Neeraj Mishra<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diwali has slowed down the race in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh while people celebrate and reflect on the booty on offer in the two states. There has been a flood of offers and sops from both parties, ironically started by the BJP, which has been at the forefront of a campaign to eliminate what it calls \u201cfreebies\u201d and their impact on the economy. A lawyer associated with the party has even filed a PIL in the Supreme Court calling for an end to freebies offered by parties ahead of elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sops should first be cleared by a board consisting of Income Tax payers. But in the current elections, it is not the free promises but the misuse of state apparatus that is making waves. After 17 years in the saddle, Shivraj Singh Chouhan suddenly woke up to the power of the word &#8220;free&#8221; and made it state policy. Just before the election dates were announced, he offered Rs 3,000 per month to all \u201cpyari behenas\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two instalments have been delivered, one on Rakhi and the other on Karva Chauth. Similarly in Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has offered Rs 2,500 per month to all unemployed youth below the age of 35. Three instalments have been delivered. If this is not enticement, what is? But it is not covered under the Model Code of Conduct as defined by the Election Commission of India.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Candidates can\u2019t give cash but governments can. There is more, Chouhan has offered Rs 500 subsidy on gas to every \u201cvivahit mahila\u201d. So have Baghel and his Rajasthan counterpart Ashok Gehlot. Chouhan has another Seekho Kamao Scheme 2023 where all unemployed youth are being given Rs 10,000 so that they can learn some skill and start their own business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This, of course, includes learning how to make tea and pakoras. All state governments going to elections have launched their own Mukhmantri Awas Yojana on the lines of the PM Awas Yojana. The above are instances of direct cash transfer by the state and the ruling party which gives it an obvious edge. So where is the level playing field for all candidates?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To level the field, opposition parties in both states have adopted the more the merrier promises. If the Congress in Chhattisgarh wanted to give Rs 2,800 per quintal of rice, the BJP immediately promised Rs 3,100 forcing the Congress to revise its offer to Rs 3,200. So the BJP decided to offer Rs 12,000 to every woman in the state per year. For this, it has started a fill-the-form campaign. All women who filled a BJP form declaring that they want the Rs 12,000 will be given Rs 12,000 if the party comes to power. So again this is a model contravention of the model code of conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no cash given now but it will be given definitely. Modi ki Guarantee hai. Congress got smart and upped it to Rs 15,000 per year. So now just calculate the cash dole out. Every married woman will get Rs 3000 per month in MP.  So if a family has only two women, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law, then the household gets Rs 72,000 per year. Add to it LPG cylinder for Rs 500 and Rs 1 per kg rice, so where is the need to work? Of course, the government will also give Rs 10 lakh health insurance cover and a PM or CM Awas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are other free ideas to avail of, from school dress to cycle and sewing machine to pakora stalls. In Chhattisgarh, each farmer will get Rs 1,000 above the MSP per quintal. It\u2019s far above what the rest of the country gets. If there are two unemployed sons because farming is not employment, then each gets Rs 24,000 per year. The wife and daughter get Rs 12,000 or Rs 15,000 per year. Of course, the same gas, housing and health schemes apply here apart from free rice, dal and chana. Are we trying to bring up a generation which does not need to work? Is it only moot to ask this or wait for the Supreme Court to deliver its verdict?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a flood of offers and sops from both parties, ironically started by the BJP which has been at the forefront of a campaign to eliminate freebies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":494090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Beating the model code of conduct: Candidates can\u2019t give cash but governments can","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1497,125714],"tags":[1847,61622,8206],"yst_prominent_words":[4482,20827,36160,4360,33844,26370,32608,33851,25196,72994,20984,51566,11598,21018,4402],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2023\/11\/15143434\/BeFunky-design-13.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494029"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=494029"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=494029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- html is corrupted -->