'Kejriwal Is The Father Of Freebie Culture'

'He didn't implement good policies for good politics.'
'He never worked on comprehensive policy-making.'
'In Kejriwal's own constituency youths are jobless.'

In the runup to the Delhi assembly elections every party is trying to outdo each other in terms of freebies.

If the Aam Aadmi Party woos women voters by giving them Rs 2,100 per month, the Congress plans to give women voters Rs 2,500 per month under its Pyari Didi Yojana.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is not to be left behind either as it is promising women voters Rs 2,500 per month under its Mahila Samridhi Yojana.

Among the rain of freebies is the Bharatiya Liberal Party that refuses to offer any freebies to voters.

The BLP is led by Dr Munish Kumar Raizada, once a close aide of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

He was suspended after he opposed the move to shield the donors' list from the party and for questioning the high command's decision to support Lalu Prasad Yadav in the 2015 Bihar assembly elections.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Dr Raizada, a practising doctor in the USA before moving back to India to join full time politics.

How did the freebie culture come to Delhi?

Good policy is good politics. When the government does not pay attention to policy-making they start enticing people.

They do not have a tangible plan regarding basic facilities like health or education. When they cannot do developmental politics they cater to a vote bank by giving freebies.

How did Arvind Kejriwal start that in Delhi?

During the Anna Hazare movement Kejriwal used to say Vyavastha Parivartan which meant overhaul of the system. But when he came to power in 2015 with 67 MLAs out of 70 in the Delhi assembly, he didn't come up with any plan for development. Instead he started distributing freebies.

And as elections near, every time he announces more and more freebies.

Kejriwal set a precedent of freebies which other parties started following. Kejriwal is the father of freebie culture politics.

But you cannot deny his policy to give 200 units of free electricity to the poor was good even though it may be a bad fiscal decision.

In the beginning it was good. But in hindsight you can see he has not created jobs.

He didn't implement good policies for good politics. He never worked on comprehensive policy-making. In Kejriwal's own constituency youths are jobless.

Freebies should not be confused with public welfare.

For example, look at the transport department of Delhi. The number of buses has reduced now. Even the pensioners of DTC had to go on strike as their pensions were not paid.

Many DTC employees are now contractual employees and here he is going on giving freebies.

If Arvind Kejriwal wants to give free tickets for women then he can give it to the poor women for sure, but he cannot give the same free ticket facility to a woman who is earning Rs 6 lakh per annum.

Is Kejriwal's mohalla clinics not a success?

In 2015, I was with Satyendra Jain as health adviser. At that time the mohalla clinic concept came up. I am not denying the usefulness of mohalla clinics but look at their condition today.

Many of them have shut down and surprisingly, you will meet many doctors in mohalla clinics who will say they have not been paid for months.

Often, mohalla clinics do not have medicines to give patients.

The doctors give any medicine to patients, which is not helping them.

Also, India has a 3-tier healthcare system; primary, secondary and tertiary. In Delhi, you have the PUHC (Primary Urban Health Care) model. They are called government dispensaries. They are under-utilised and on top of that Kejriwal got in mohalla clinics.

Every political party is promising freebies. Where are we going wrong in policy decisions?

No political party is working on any policy decisions. There is a policy paralysis. They are not delivering in terms of governance and instead are in haste to deliver freebies.

This time they have gone beyond that shame too.

Have elections been reduced to cash for votes?

That's right. Kejriwal has announced he will pay Rs 2,100 to every woman if he comes to power again. The Congress in competition to Kejriwal is stating they will give Rs 2,500 to the women of Delhi. Where does this lead to?

What do you do in such a scenario?

I tell sisters and mothers that if someone is giving you money take it but don't believe him. They are giving free money and it is the public's money -- which is their own. And if these people are giving you free money they will loot you later.

When they hear this they have a smirk on their face. They know this reality.

I tell them I came from the USA to change politics in India. We want to change this corrupt system.

Why do you feel Arvind Kejriwal has lost his direction to do good politics?

When the Anna Hazare movement was going on people felt Kejriwal will overhaul the system. But when he came to power he started deviating from day one with his policies.

When you say your party is not going to give any freebies what do the voters tell you?

They ask me, 'humein kya milega? What will we get if we vote for your party?' I tell them they will get vikas (development).

I distribute notebooks to children. The voters feel good to get these notebooks. I also tell them if our government comes to power, we will give laptops to children for educational purpose.

Your election symbol is the dustbin?

Dustbin is very symbolic in our fight. I tell voters, we will break the election symbol of all parties and throw them in the dustbin.