Narrative of freebies insultingly equates people’s struggle for their rights to begging: Dr. Thomas Isaac

He said the attack on the welfare state can be seen as a push towards privatisation of essential services and the government washing its hands off its constitutional obligations towards the people

The narrative of terming the welfare state as “freebies” or “revdi culture”, a term used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, “insultingly equates” the struggle of people for their rights to “begging”, said Dr. T. M. Thomas Isaac, former finance minister of Kerala, from the CPI(M). He delivered a talk on “The phony debate on freebies: A coordinated attack on democracy and welfare”, at an event organised by the Bengaluru Collective in the city on Sunday. 

Dr. Isaac questioned the motive behind terming the democratic rights and aspirations of people in critical areas such as access to healthcare, housing and food as ‘freebies’. He said this attack on the welfare state can be seen as part of the larger push towards privatisation of essential services and the government washing its hands off its constitutional obligations towards the people.

“This narrative also impacts the ability of political parties to properly articulate the aspirations and needs of the people, limiting the scope and extent of political debate through the bogey of ‘fiscal rectitude’,” he said. 

“In the last five years, more than ₹10 lakh crore of loans extended by public sector banks, mostly to large corporate entities, have been written off causing problems to the public exchequer. There have been tax cuts, too. However, these concessions are never termed as ‘freebies’. The word is derisively thrown only at the working masses of the country demanding the rights that are owed to them,” he said. 

Further, he said the narrative forwarded by the Prime Minister himself amounted to undermining the States’ functions and constraining their decision-making powers which is harmful to the spirit of federalism.