Look who’s holding the revdi packet now.
On Wednesday, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Vishnu Dev Sai government in Chhattisgarh announced a hike in the dearness allowance aka DA for employees in the central government and the central Indian state, handing the Opposition the same stick that the BJP has used repeatedly in the past deriding welfare schemes launched in other-party- ruled states as “revdi culture”.
Made of sesame seeds, jaggery, powdered sugar, cardamom, clarified butter and also containing citric acid, revdi is a popular sweet across most of North India, especially during the harsh winters.
The DA announcements, the Union minister Ashwini Vaishnav and the Chhattisgarh chief minister said, were made keeping in mind the festival of Diwali on October 31.
The three percentage point hike for the 49.18 lakh central government employees and 64.89 pensioners will cost the exchequer an additional Rs. 9,448 crore effective from July 1.
In Chhattisgarh, the DA is now at 50 per cent of the salary.
The timing of the incentives, a day after the Election Commission announced the poll dates, did not go unnoticed by the Opposition, many of whom have been attacked by Modi himself in the past for allegedly giving freebies – “revdi culture” according to the prime minister.
On Tuesday itself, just before the central poll panel announced the poll dates – November 20 in Maharashtra for the 288-member legislative Assembly and in two phases for the 81-member Jharkhand assembly – Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde announced a festival bonus of Rs. 29,000 for each of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) workers and Rs 3,000 for women eligible under Ladki Behen scheme launched by the Shinde-led government.
"If all the contracts given to [Maharashtra CM] Eknath Shinde's favourite contractors are cancelled then a welfare state is 100 per cent possible. What is a freebie? Everything of Mumbai that is being given to Adani is a freebie," Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said during a media conference held in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon.
The Opposition is pointing the same finger at the BJP and Modi that the ruling party has often used to point to the Opposition.
“There are some governments which are indulging in revdi culture to secure votes, while the double engine government is working towards creating new expressways and rail routes,” Modi had said on July 16, 2022, while inaugurating the Bundelkhand Expressway in Uttar Pradesh.
The “revdi culture” jibe has since retained a special status in the ruling party’s political lexicon.
“Social welfare is the duty of every government,” said Sushmita Dev, Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP. “It is the timing of these announcements that are suspect and reeks of under-confidence. This also shows that he (Modi) has little faith in the development work carried out in Maharashtra in the last two years."
“Modi has done a somersault on everything that he spoke against in the 16th Lok Sabha. He was critical of the [rural job guarantee scheme] MGNREGA. Now he speaks in favour of it. He was critical of states led by opposition parties giving free electricity. There are several BJP-ruled states where electricity is being given for free,” Dev pointed out.
The DA bonanza was not the only variety of ‘revdi’ on offer from the Modi government. Following a cabinet meeting, minister Vaishnav also announced a raise in the Minimum Support Price )MSP) for rabi crops.
A fixed MSP and guaranteed procurement have been key demands from the farming community for decades. They have been the reason for pitched battles between the farmers and the Centre as well as the BJP government in Haryana
The spike in the MSP ranges from Rs 150 per quintal in wheat to Rs 300 for mustard and Rs. 210 per quintal for grams. The hike is expected to bring a boost to the earnings of the farmers.
Vijoo Krishnan, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, said the BJP was trying to hoodwink the farmers.
“In Maharashtra Vidarbha’s Amravati region alone 575 farmers died of suicide. Procurement on the MSP decided by the government is not guaranteed,” said Krishnan.
He explained, if the cost of production for any farm produce in Maharashtra was Rs 2,000 and the same in Uttarakhand was Rs. 800, the MSP was based on the average, putting the Maharashtra farmers at a disadvantage.
“Their [BJP’s] popularity is at the lowest. They are trying to fool the farmers but we believe the farmers are far more intelligent,” said Krishnan.
The intelligence of the farming community, which had not allowed BJP leaders to campaign in Haryana during the Lok Sabha and the just held Assembly polls, did not come in the way of the BJP to form a government in the state for the third time.
Whether Modi’s revdi is sweeter than the Opposition’s will be known on November 23.
