Rice race hots up: BJP to follow Congress

NEW DELHI: The populist floodgates have been thrown open. After Congress promised 25kg of rice or wheat at Rs 3 a month for every family below the poverty line, BJP looks set to respond with a similar scheme with foodgrain for the poor at even cheaper rates.

"We will more than match the Congress on this," said BJP sources. Though they refused to spell out details, the party appears to have the Chhattisgarh model in mind where the government has offered rice at Rs 2 a kg for BPL families. The scheme was a key factor in the BJP's victory in the state assembly polls last December.

If the quantum of rice under BJP's Rs 2/kg scheme is assumed to be the same 25 kg/month as offered by Congress, it will increase the subsidy bill by Rs 7,200 crore, Rs 1,500 crore more than the subsidy that the Congress scheme entails.

With both Congress and the BJP signing off on this cheap grain scheme, irrespective of who wins, highly subsidised rice and wheat for BPL families is expected to be rolled out as a countrywide scheme. A Third Front-led government, backed by the Congress, will ensure its early implementation.

Lack of resources has not really been the reason why cheap food schemes have not been brought in nationally. The delay has more to do with squeamishness about populism, particularly after the country embarked on economic reforms with fiscal discipline as one of the key ingredients.

But today, populism as a principle of governance has found expression in some form or the other worldwide in the aftermath of the global economic crisis. The mood-altering economic slowdown and arguments that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures have all but sumberged any concern for fiscal discipline.

Criticism of UPA's massive spending — Rs 71,000 crore allocated for NREGA and Bharat Nirman in the 2009-10 budget — was more on lack of delivery than about the outlay itself.

By all indications, BJP may try to outspend — in terms of promises — the Congress. In fact, when the BJP manifesto group met on Wednesday afternoon shortly after the Congress poll appeal was released, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, who happened to be in town, was invited to attend the deliberations. "It is clear that development and welfare programmes will be an important component," said senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu.

Besides the cheap rice scheme, the BJP will also promise the countrywide implementation of Madhya Pradesh government's popular `ladli' scheme where the government makes deposits in the accounts of every girl child attending school.

The turnaround on populism is best represented by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister who collected accolades from fiscal disciplinarians for turning away from the culture of populist sops launched his election campaign this year with the promise of cash transfers.

If the TDP chief has done a somersault on populism — he had once famously remarked that Congress's offer of free power would lead to farmers using electricity cables to dry washing — the BJP is not too far behind. "In the past few years BJP understanding of populism has changed," said a party source.

The same unapologetic approach is evident in Congress with Jairam Ramesh, a key campaign planner, telling TOI, "If fat cats get bailouts it is called stimulus but in the case of the poor it is populism! If being pro-aam admi is populism then Congress is being populist." Clearly the rice race is well and truly on.

In the past, when revenues were bouyant, Ramesh had defended higher fertiliser subsidies as pro-farmer. In a recession, give-aways may well have an added appeal

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