Chief Minister Narendra Modi was dead against individual beneficiary schemes, including the employment safety-valve programme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ran a blistering campaign, most stridently in 2022, against providing cash and other free benefits to people, contemptuously terming these freebies and rewdis. He gradually became tolerant of freebies and rewdis distributed by his party and allied chief ministers (Ladli Behan in Madhya Pradesh and Ladki Bahin in Maharashtra included), and quietly moderated his rhetoric against rewdi culture.
On 26 September, PM Modi transferred Rs 10,000 into the bank accounts of 75 lakh women under election-bound Bihar's Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana (MMRY), which promises cash assistance of Rs 2 lakh to more than 1.5 crore women, costing the government Rs 3 lakh crore. The MMRY has been called the mother of all freebies.
Having buried his shrill campaign against rewdi culture, is PM Modi now the Rewdi King of India?
PM Modi's Angst Against Populism and Freebies
I joined as Economic Affairs Secretary in July 2017, well after PM Modi’s strong views against populist expenditure by the states, MGNREGA, and other free benefit programmes had been eloquently and publicly expressed.
Still, I was taken by surprise when the Prime Minister’s Office, clearly under instructions from PM Modi, proposed—while commenting on draft terms of reference (ToRs) for the 15th Finance Commission prepared by the Finance Ministry—the inclusion of an unprecedented ToR aimed at disadvantaged states that spent public funds on populist schemes before elections.
While the sentiment was understandable, it was not the job of the Finance Commission to factor this into the determination of a state’s share in the central tax pool. I had to perform some intellectual gymnastics to design a device that could accommodate PM Modi’s sentiments.
A measurable, performance-based incentive scheme was created to incentivise or disincentivise states across nine criteria, one of which included control—or lack thereof—over expenditure on populist measures.
It was clear that PM Modi felt strongly against populist expenditures and freebies, though the metaphor rewdis had not yet entered his vocabulary.
A Campaign Against Rewdi Culture
In 2022, PM Modi launched a fierce attack on the prevalent culture of populism and freebies, using the term ‘rewdis’.
He castigated Opposition governments “which are indulging in rewdi culture to secure votes”. He contrasted their policies with those of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states, “while the double-engine government is working towards creating new expressways and rail routes.”
He warned that the “rewdi culture” would take “India towards darkness.” PM Modi’s stance was quickly echoed by his party functionaries and sympathetic narrative builders.
PILs were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the practice of political parties promising freebies during elections, requesting directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to “seize election symbols and deregister political parties that promise to distribute freebies using public funds during election campaigns.”
The ECI formally opposed the plea but remained sympathetic. It designed a format for political parties to report the cost of their electoral promises and initiated consultations on the proposal.
The campaign against populist expenditure, freebies, and rewdi culture went into full swing.
PM Modi's Pivot to Win Elections?
The Opposition parties, most unabashedly the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, were stridently in favour of promising and delivering freebies to the people, both in kind (for example, free electricity) and in cash (direct transfers to beneficiaries).
The Congress’s promises of numerous freebies, pushed as guarantees in Karnataka and Telangana, seemingly helped it wrest power in these states. The Congress governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had also launched several populist schemes for everyone, including the poor, government servants, and the unemployed, before the 2023 elections.
Worried about a possible Karnataka-like impact, PM Modi pivoted, dropped his ideological opposition, and introduced a long list of “Modi Guarantees,” which were essentially copycat versions of Opposition schemes with added increments.
Ladli Behan was launched in Madhya Pradesh, and extensive Modi Guarantees were offered in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh as well. Voters perhaps found PM Modi’s promises of rewdis and freebies more credible. Whether aided by other tools like voter management or not, these guarantees helped the BJP secure victories in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
The goose of rewdis was fully cooked. PM Modi’s shrill anti-rewdis rhetoric began disappearing from his speeches and the BJP campaign.
Instead, the focus shifted to the creditworthiness of his guarantees, and his sympathisers stopped pursuing the matter in the Supreme Court and ECI.
Bihar Scheme Is Mother of Rewdis
Subsequent state elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand confirmed that PM Modi adopted rewdis as a major instrument for winning elections, in addition to the Hindutva agenda.
The freebies became the centre of a cut-throat competition between PM Modi, the BJP, and its allies on one side, and the Congress and other Opposition parties on the other. There were no holds barred.
The rewdis promised by the ruling party tend to appear more credible to voters unless there is strong anti-incumbency. In Haryana and Maharashtra, the ruling party won, and in Jharkhand, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won.
Bihar’s MMRY is the epitome of a rewdi scheme. It also suffers from the typical ills of a populist scheme launched just before elections.
The scheme envisages a payment of Rs 2 lakh, over time, to every Bihar woman who registers with the government promising to start some rojgar. Upon registration, she receives Rs 10,000 in her bank account, with nothing else required. The remaining Rs 1.9 lakh is promised to be redeemed after winning the election.
With the election in Bihar only two to three weeks away, Rs 10,000 has already been deposited into the accounts of 75 lakh women. Reportedly, 1.5 crore women have registered. On 3 October, the next batch will receive Rs 10,000 each, and another batch of payments might be made just a day or hours before the ECI announces the election.
PM Modi is the Rewdi King
If there is a mother of rewdi schemes, Bihar's MMRY is it. It is a state scheme, yet PM Modi delivered the transfer of Rs 10,000 in the accounts of 75 lakh women who will be voting soon. He actually used the occasion to launch the election campaign for the BJP-Janata Dal (United) in Bihar. He might deliver the incoming one or two transfers as well.
PM Modi had no qualms about populist expenditure just before the elections. He was all praise for the Bihar rewdi scheme.
With this, he certainly buried the rewdi rhetoric deep down the Ganges. His makeover from a staunch critic of populist freebies to an unabashed user of rewdis is complete.
Arvind Kejriwal, who claims to be the father of freebies in India, may continue to lick his wounds. PM Modi is the unquestioned Rewdi King of India.
(Subhash Chandra Garg is the Chief Policy Advisor, SUBHANJALI, and Former Finance and Economic Affairs Secretary, Government of India. He's the author of many books, including 'The $10 Trillion Dream Dented, 'We Also Make Policy', and 'Explanation and Commentary on Budget 2025-26'. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)