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There is an outpouring of promises in Karnataka. This was bound to happen during the election season. When AAP’s Kejriwal was showering free hawkers in Gujarat last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party was the first to raise the question that to what extent is it justified to loot the treasury during elections like this? The matter also went to the court, where the lawyers of different parties gave a lot of arguments. Some interpretation was also given by the court but no decision could be reached. The matter is still going on.
In Karnataka, the BJP has released its election manifesto on Monday, in which there is an outpouring of freebies. It is not that other parties are not doing all this. But since the BJP had opposed the free hawkers, its responsibility becomes more. Then BJP is the biggest party in the world, so everyone else is going to follow you, considering this also increases the responsibility of BJP.
The first promise in Karnataka is Uniform Civil Code. This is the old slogan of the party and no one should have any objection to it. It has always been a good experiment to woo Hindu voters. It cannot be called free reveri. The free promises made by the BJP are half a liter of free milk daily to the poor. A free kit of five kg ration every month to the people of BPL i.e. “Below Poverty Line”.
…and three gas cylinders in a year to BPL families. Their remaining days have also been fixed. A cylinder on the occasion of Ugadi i.e. New Year of South India. Second cylinder on Ganesh Chaturthi and third on the occasion of Diwali. It is noteworthy that the number of BPL families in Karnataka is 21% i.e. 1.29 crore. Not only this, a promise has also been made to open Atal Aahar Kendra in every ward where everyone will get full meal for fifteen rupees.
Overall, all arrangements have been made in this manifesto to woo the voters. It is obvious that the rest of the parties will also make similar promises and after all, despite such a long debate or discussion in the court, this election will also be fought on the basis of free hawkers. Since the Supreme Court has not passed any order regarding this.
Since no clear line has been drawn with the Election Commission in this regard, everything is fair for the time being. Even if a party promises to break the stars from the sky and place them at the feet, there is no harm in that too. Unless there is a clear code of conduct or rules and regulations in this matter, there is no other solution.