When Edappadi Okay. Palaniswami launched the AIADMK’s manifesto this week, one promise stood out even in a state lengthy accustomed to expensive political creativeness. The thought was that if the occasion returned to energy, it will present free fridges to all rice ration card holders.
As well as, acquainted guarantees included doubling the month-to-month money switch for ladies from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000, a one-time aid fee of Rs 10,000 for households, free bus journey for males, three free LPG cylinders a 12 months, crop mortgage waivers, elevated help costs for paddy fields and photo voltaic subsidies.
Palaniswami termed the manifesto an “election hero”. In a way, he is proper. In Tamil Nadu, welfare guarantees are by no means simply an adjunct to campaigns. Typically they’re campaigns themselves, a language during which actors speak about dignity, debt, starvation, aspirations, and household stress.
Outsiders name them freebies. The state’s two foremost Dravidian teams, DMK and AIADMK, emphasize ‘social welfare’. This debate continued for many years, as each explanations include some reality. Speedy context is necessary. AIADMK is combating a tough election. The ruling DMK has not solely promised welfare. We have now applied a number of plans and promoted them relentlessly. Ladies’s empowerment, morning breakfast programmes, free bus journeys for ladies, money transfers and mortgage forgiveness are all a part of the federal government’s day by day political promoting. Mr. Palaniswami’s problem is to not invent welfare politics, however to outbid incumbents who already occupy excessive positions.
So his manifesto reads like an train in escalation. If DMK affords Rs 1,000, AIADMK affords Rs 2,000. And Vijay’s TVK, which had been mocking freebies within the early months, is providing Rs 2,500. If the aid is common, the AIADMK will add a one-time cushion of Rs 10,000. If free journey is for ladies, the AIADMK will prolong it to males as effectively. The promise of free LPG additionally stays, albeit in a lowered type from six cylinders in 2021 to 3 cylinders now. The logic is easy. In a rustic the place welfare is the ethical language, the opposition should not sound stingy.
Welfare structure
However whereas there’s a faint whiff of marketing campaign panic within the air, that is extra than simply desperation. It is usually deep in Tamil Nadu.
The state’s welfare coverage did not begin with televisions and blenders. It began with meals, poverty and social justice. In 1967, CN Annadurai promised three rice seers for Re 1. After his victory, he famously really scaled it down, reminding us that election poetry and financial prose are by no means the identical. Mr. Karunanidhi then promised 5 kg of rice to ration card holders. However by the mid-2000s, marketing campaign present tradition entered the trendy client section.
In 2006, Karunanidhi’s coloration tv plan turned a worldwide shorthand for populism in Tamil Nadu. In 2011, Jayalalithaa countered with laptops, grinders, mixies and followers, lots of which she later provided underneath the ‘Amma’ model. There was additionally a water bottle model referred to as “Amma”. In 2016, she promised free cell telephones, 100 free electrical energy items, sponsored scooters for ladies, breakfast for kids, cash for marriage help, and extra.
There’s a temptation, particularly outdoors the states, to scale back all of this to election-buying. However the historical past of Tamil Nadu itself is extra complicated than that. The identical political tradition that produced coloration tv additionally produced a full-fledged welfare construction. As Kalaiyarasan A. and Vijayabaskar M. argue in The Dravidian Mannequin, Tamil Nadu has turn out to be a ‘pioneer in constructing a social welfare mannequin primarily based on offering rights outdoors the realm of employment’. They level out that “what started as an financial attraction to the plenty has developed right into a official declare for the individuals.”
That is the essential distinction. In Tamil Nadu, many schemes can not survive as mere election marketing campaign fodder. They turn out to be entrenched in public expectations. The obvious instance is the noon meal program. The state’s custom of feeding faculty youngsters dates again to the Justice Celebration period, to L. Kamaraj’s “Combating Starvation within the Classroom” and MG Ramachandran’s enlargement of the noon meal system within the Nineteen Eighties. The Dravidian mannequin factors out that Tamil Nadu was the primary state in post-independence India to introduce free mid-day meals for varsity youngsters, and that the scheme helped scale back dropouts, particularly amongst decrease castes and poor youngsters. This system can also be described as being professionally run by the kitchen, organizers, cooks, helpers, and on-site screens, quite than a haphazard pile of rice.
The identical argument now underpins the nation’s protection towards the DMK’s breakfast plans and the BJP’s occasional assaults on the ‘revdi tradition’. In an earlier interview with The Indian Specific, former state planning fee member J. Jeyaranjan recalled {that a} skeptical planning fee as soon as requested MGR whether or not he meant to run colleges and eateries. Tamil Nadu’s reply has been to do each over time after which quietly enhance attendance, diet, and academic retention.
Free fridge promise
The promise of free fridges is politically fascinating as a result of it sits on the border between two traditions. One is profound redistribution — meals, schooling, reservations, direct transportation, public transport, well being help — and the opposite is symbolic family items — televisions, grinders, followers, telephones, and maybe now fridges. Whereas one will be defended as social infrastructure, the opposite will be tough to justify.
Even inside this custom, manifestos are usually not at all times secure, as some disappear. Palaniswami’s promise to offer free washing machines in 2021 has now quietly gone lacking. 6 LPG cylinders turned 3. As an alternative comes a costlier image of home aspirations and consumerism: the fridge. Political messages are usually not refined. AIADMK desires to sound beneficiant, trendy and family-friendly on the similar time.
Nonetheless, monetary points can’t be ignored. Tamil Nadu just isn’t a poor state, however it’s also incapable of performing fiscal wizardry. The state has lengthy argued that borrowing is productive and results in progress. This argument is that it’s simpler to take care of breakfast and bus journey than it’s to take care of a fridge for every ration card.
Nonetheless, voters might not reject it as ridiculous. That’s the political genius and burden of Tamil Nadu. States have taught voters to consider welfare not as charity however as a official demand. Annadurai’s promise of rice, Karunanidhi’s Social Justice Act, MGR’s mid-day meal, Jayalalithaa’s ‘Amma State’ and Stalin’s rights-based cession created a tradition during which the poor weren’t anticipated to be grateful however wished extra.
The query earlier than voters just isn’t whether or not welfare ought to exist. What issues is whether or not you’re feeling these guarantees are achievable, helpful, and truthful. Breakfast plans for getting youngsters to highschool belong to a sure ethical class. Every ration card’s fridge belongs to a different ration card. Tamil Nadu is aware of the distinction, even when the marketing campaign typically pretends to not know.
For now, Mr. Palaniswami has thrown the fridge into the ring as a result of he’s combating a tricky election and in a state the place politics nonetheless enters the house from the kitchen. In response to the newest electoral roll of Tamil Nadu (2026), the variety of girls voters now outnumbers males by greater than 1.2 million. Whether or not voters see the guarantees as aid, nostalgia or overreach will decide whether or not the manifesto turns into an election hero or only a memorable prop.
