Just this week, the Election Commission reported that there is a seven-fold increase in the usage of freebies for campaigning in the five state elections.
Last August, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said that using taxpayer money to entice voters with free stuff is a “serious economic issue.” As a solution, he suggested creating an apex body that would include the RBI (Reserve Bank of India), NITI Ayog, the Finance Commission, the Election Commission, and both the ruling and opposition parties.
Such an ad hoc approach to solving this problem is unlikely to work. Our Constitution, in fact, enables such abuse: its adherence to majority-rule; lack of regulation of political parties; fusion of executive and legislative powers; paucity of checks on government; overlapping state and central powers, and even its Preamble and Directive Principles.