Who Pays for the Largesse?

With just a few months left for the Legislative Assembly elections of Assam, the ruling Congress party seems to have got all the benefits of being in power. There are large hoardings and smaller illumited boxes with the photograph of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi that talk about 15 years of faith and 15 years of development. The expenditure on this is almost astronomical. Quite obviously, he has not paid for it all himself. It is even doubtful that the Congress party has paid for it. It is very likely that the entire expense has been borne by the State government. That the ruling political party is making the government pay for a large part of its election campaign is quite obvious. Similar expenses for largesse are clearly borne by the State government as must be evident from Minister Akan Bora’s jingle when he distributes mosquito nets to village women. The jingle urges people to take the sarkaari mosquito nets and to vote for Akan Bora. What the Election Commission needs to tell us is how a minister can distribute mosquito nets paid for by the government and ask people to vote for him for such sarkaari largesse having been received. This is something that the Election Commission not only needs to look into but to put an end to at once if its credibility is worth anything at all to it.