Bihar Election 2025: With the announcement of election dates in Bihar, talks of ‘political bribery’ have started doing the rounds. Political bribery means enticing voters to vote in your favor by distributing bribes.
Here Revadis mean those ‘free services’ which are lured by the politicians to deceive the voters. Earlier, essential commodities like electricity and water were given to the voters and promised to be given, but now cash is being distributed. Just a few days ago, Bihar government has given a new dimension to this Revdi culture by depositing Rs. 10,000 each in the bank accounts of more than one crore women. One crore women means reaching one crore families. This is a direct bribe in the name of women empowerment.
The question being asked is whether distribution of such cash by a government is not winning elections with government money? Assurance politics is not a new thing and on the surface it does not seem that wrong. After all, it is the job of the government to think about the welfare of the public, and by providing financial assistance to the public, the public is helped.
But the question arises that why do governments and political parties remember this ‘help’ of the public even before the elections? The question should also be raised that why this tradition of distributing ‘gifts’ in politics should not come under the category of crime? The simple answer to this question is that this crime is being committed with the connivance of everyone.
It seems to be an easy way for politicians, governments and political parties to get their work done by distributing bribes or should we say giving bribes. In such a situation, why would anyone find anything wrong in this deal of mutual benefit? Now our political parties do not even want to think that in this competition the budget deficit of the states is continuously increasing – this deficit is reaching dangerous levels.
In view of all this, a demand was also raised that some rules and regulations should also be made regarding the financial discipline of this politics of free culture. It was also said that along with such strategies and schemes, details of the expenditure on them should also be given in the election manifestos. It should also be told how the expenditure on these schemes will be managed. But nothing like this seems to be happening. Whereas political morality demands that this bad culture of politics ends.