What’s the point of buying votes if you don’t get loyalty?

Amrit Dhillon looks at a strange election routine in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu

Employees walk through a rest area at the Tata Consultancy Services campus in the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu IT Park in the Siruseri area of Chennai, India. Dhiraj Singh / BloombergShow less

Who doesn’t love a freebie? But would you take one in exchange for your vote? In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, being bribed for your vote is a sometimes comical dysfunction in the political system. Voters are going to the polls next month and many of them are not going to decide which party to vote for based on its policies on health care, education, agriculture or jobs. The choice is between a smartphone (being offered by the opposition party) or a laptop (courtesy of the party in power).

In the state’s political culture, freebies at election time have become the norm. And it’s not limited to Tamil Nadu. In the 2014 election in Punjab, whisky and rum were given to voters in some constituencies. In Uttar Pradesh in 2012, free laptops were promised but at least they were confined to meritorious students and had some tenuous connection with encouraging education. (Let’s not complicate matters by pointing out that most of the beneficiaries had no electricity in their homes, much less an internet connection).

In Tamil Nadu, however, the practice is institutionalised and systematic. Election manifestos list freebies, not policies. Earlier, they used to be humble offerings: 30 kilograms of rice, nylon saris, towels or plastic water storage containers. But in keeping with India’s rising consumerist aspirations, they have become grander. Both the main parties – the opposition Dravidian Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) – have lured voters with gold jewellery, kitchen blenders and fans.

Their competitive bribery shot up to a new level in 2006 when the DMK promised free television sets if it came to power. It won the election and distributed 15 million sets over the next five years. The AIADMK leader, Jayalalithaa, learnt a bitter (and wrong) lesson from this election: that you are only as good as the last freebie you gave.

So in the 2011 election, she went on a spree, promising free cable connections, laptops and gold. She won and is now trying to win a second term. To dislodge her, the DMK has a powerful weapon: a smartphone with a 4G connection. How can she top that?

All this bribery means that the state budget goes awry. Money that could be spent on clean drinking water, sewage systems, schools and hospitals is spent on these one-off gifts. Long-term welfare schemes that aim at sustained benefits have given way to the instant gratification of consumerist impulses.

To be fair, the Jayalalithaa government has pioneered an extraordinary low-cost programme of canteens that provide nourishing, dirt-cheap, hot meals to anyone who needs them in urban areas. Knowing that one meal of the day at least is taken care of is a godsend for poor families. While these meals are heavily subsidised to keep the cost low, they are not handouts – and the distinction is important.

Corrupt practices such as bribing are forbidden under the Election Commission’s code of conduct. Acting on a private petitioner’s complaint in 2013 for freebies to be outlawed, the Supreme Court of India declined to wade into the murky waters. Instead, it told the commission that it was its job to do so. Yet the commissioners seem unable to act, perhaps fearing assault by blender-wielding housewives.

Apart from being unethical, bribing will ultimately lead to an empty exchequer. The prerequisites for any society to prosper in the long run – good infrastructure and educated citizens – are being neglected for cheap, short-term gains.

Funnily enough, largesse can come back and bite you. After the DMK handed out 15 million televisions in 2006, those very TVs used to receive broadcasts of unflattering information and images of the DMK government. The DMK lost power in the next election.

Even in Uttar Pradesh, the government, embittered, has discontinued free laptops. To its indignation, it has discovered from surveys that laptop owners cannot be counted on to vote for the same party the next time round. In fact, many families promptly sold the laptop they were given.

In this shabby transaction between briber and bribed, there is no respect. If politicians treat voters with cynical contempt, voters can be guaranteed to pay them back in the same coin.

Amrit Dhillon is a freelance journalist in New Delhi