Democracy to Emocracy: Dhankar slams election-geared populism | Mumbai news
MUMBAI: In a piquant situation, vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday denounced the practice of populist moves to win elections even as deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, whose Ladki Bahin Yojana is draining the state’s finances, sat next to him. Dhankhar was in Mumbai to address the first ‘Murli Deora Memorial Dialogues’, the theme of which was ‘Leadership and Governance’.
Speaking of this populism, Dhankar quipped, “A national debate is required so that we take note of the shift from Democracy to ‘Emocracy’. Emotion-driven policies, emotion-driven debates and discourses threaten good governance. Historically, populism is bad economics—and once a leader gets attached to populism, it is difficult to get out of the crisis. The central factor must be the good of the people, the largest good of the people, the lasting good of the people. Empower people to empower themselves rather than empower them momentarily because that affects their productivity.”
The vice-president made this statement in the presence of Shinde, whose Ladki Bahin scheme was a populist move undertaken after the Mahayuti got a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls. The scheme, under which underprivileged women from 18 to 65 get a monthly dole of ₹1,500, helped the ruling alliance win but several important projects have been stuck due to the financial drain it caused.
Expressing concern at the emergence of appeasement politics and placatory strategies across the political arena, Dhankar said, “There is the emergence of a new strategy… of appeasement or being placatory. If there is excessive spending on electoral promises, the state’s ability to invest in infrastructure is correspondingly reduced. This is detrimental to the growth scenario. Elections are important in a democracy but are not the be-all and end-all of it. I would call upon the leadership of all political parties, in the interest of democratic values, to generate a consensus that engaging in such electoral promises, which can be performed only at the cost of CAPEX expenditure of the state, must be reviewed. Some governments that took recourse to this appeasement and placatory mechanisms are finding it very difficult to sustain in power.”
The VP clarified that affirmative action for marginalised communities was distinct from appeasement politics. “I should not be misunderstood,” he said. “Because, while the Indian Constitution has given us the right to equality, it does provide in Article 14, 15, and 16 an acceptable category of affirmative governance—reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and for those who are in the economically weaker section. That is sanctified. There are exceptional situations for rural India, for the farmer, where affirmative steps are required to be taken. But this is distinct from the other aspects I was talking about. This is not placatory or appeasing. It is justifiable economic policy. And therefore, it is good leadership that can take a call on where to draw the line in the fiscal sense in the matter of political foresight and leadership spine.”
The VP also spoke on the perils caused by illegal migrants. “Millions of illegal migrants are in this country, making a huge demand on our health and education services,” he said. “They are depriving our people of employment opportunities. Such elements have alarmingly secured electoral relevance in some areas, and their securing electoral relevance is shaping the essence of our democracy. Emerging dangers can be evaluated through historical reference where nations were swept of their ethnic identity by similar demographic invasions.”
