Colour TV? Let me have a blue one please!

This Indian Voter is not sure how many people in India take the election manifestos of the political parties seriously. To the best of this writer's knowledge, election manifestos that are released at the respective party headquarters in the full glare of media seldom reach the common people these parties promise to 'serve'. Very often these parties promise much beyond the sun & the moon and that precisely makes the entire exercise a big mockery.

Doling out or rather promising freebies to public is nothing new for the general practitioners of Indian democracy. Only that the form & volume differs.

Way back in 1967, C.N.Annadurai led DMK upset the Congress applecart and stormed to power on the promise of providing 3 quintals of rice for a rupee (ரூபாய்க்கு மூன்று படி அரிசி). M.G.Ramachandran, was in DMK then and he was the star campaigner for the party. It was MGR who championed the "padi arisi thittam" during the election campaign. In the same election, M.G.Ramachandran also got elected to represent the St. Thomas Mount constituency in the TN Assembly (St. Thomas Mount constituency doesn't exist anymore. It is now being called Alandur). DMK couldn't live up to its poll promise and in the next election, Congress coined a slogan "பரங்கிமலை தாத்தா! படி அரிசி தா தா!!" (parangimalai thaathaa, padi arisi thaa thaa) in apparent reference to M.G.Ramachandran.

Not long ago in 1994, another matinee idol - N.T.Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh captured power on the promise that rice would be made available for Rs 2 a kg. Even about twelve years back, that was considered to be an impractical promise and NTR came in for heavy criticism from those who cared a thing or two about economy.

Another interesting promise, though it didn't find place in the party manifesto was made in 1998 by AIADMK candidate for Tiruchendur parliamentary constituency. If elected, he promised that, he would have his movies filmed within that constituency. Sounds funny or otherwise, he got elected to the parliament in that election. To those of you who are very curious, the candidate is Ramarajan - film star of early 1990s.

Currently, the manifesto brought out by Karunanidhi led DMK has taken the freebies culture to a new level. Apart from promising 'quality rice' at Rs 2 per kilogram, DMK led government, if voted to power would provide every family in Tamilnadu with a new colour television. Population of TN, according to 2001 census is around 60 million (6 crores). For the sake of convenience, assuming that each family comprises of 6 persons, there would be 10 million (1 crore) familes in the state. Again, assuming that the lowest priced colour TV would cost Rs 7000, if DMK is serious about its manifesto, it would cost the exchequer a whopping Rs 7,000 crore. This writer reckons that Palaniappan Chidambaram - the Union Finance Minister and the one who happens to be an important leader of a party in the DMK led alliance would have squirmed in his seats when he learnt of the above. In the past, Chidambaram has rightly discouraged such freebies and when Jayalalithaa government recently doled out cash relief of Rs. 2000 to the flood victims, he so thoughtfully reasoned out the economic mismanagement of such a measure.

For the general public though, this might - alas, sound very interesting. If one party manages to win the election by giving them free colour TVs, wouldn't the next party get them all free Home Cinema sets? Economy? Come on.. Is that very important than 'Selvi' or 'Kolangal'?

P.S: For the uninitiated, 'Selvi', 'Kolangal' are popular mega serials telecast in Sun TV.