When MGR gave the Centre a ‘freebie’ lesson

While 'freebie' is used to describe the food, the fans or the mixies poor people get, it is never used to describe the tax deductions, exemptions, and waivers the rich enjoy

The Constitution isn’t always defended in grand debates in Parliament, people’s movements, or even court judgements filled with glowing rhetoric. Sometimes, it’s a small, almost unseen gesture that makes a mark. One such gesture was made in 1985 when then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M G Ramachandran met then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Manmohan Singh.

The background to this meeting was the state-wide roll-out of the mid-day meal scheme for children above the age of two in Tamil Nadu. In 1985, three years since the scheme was initially started, criticism of its lack of effectiveness and efficiency had mounted. MGR even had a tough time getting enough rice and dal allocated from the Centre. The Planning Commission, though not a constitutional body, still played a significant role in the allocation of money and resources to states (through the Centre), apart from making five-year plans for the states.

When MGR went to Delhi to meet Manmohan Singh, the mid-day meal scheme was seen as a waste of resources, and the Planning Commission had refused to allocate resources for it. MGR nonetheless persisted because he as a mass leader knew the needs of the people and was only interested in finding out how he could find resources to meet those needs effectively.

Five minutes into the meeting at the Planning Commission, as coffee was being served, Manmohan Singh asked MGR and his bureaucrats how the expenditure on the mid-day meal scheme was going. MGR pushed away the coffee cup without taking a sip, stood up without a word, and walked out of the meeting. His bureaucrats, stunned by the gesture, followed a moment later. Manmohan Singh, ever the genial man, could not for the life of him understand how he had upset MGR.

This incident is narrated in S Narayan’s fantastic book Dravidian Years -- an in-depth account of welfare and politics in Tamil Nadu since independence. Narayan, an IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, was in the room when MGR stood up, literally and metaphorically.

I was reminded of the significance of this meeting as the Supreme Court deigned to hear a PIL seeking to halt ‘freebies’. In three hearings so far, the court, which was initially gung-ho about taking up this matter, has since had serious doubts about its own role and the role of other institutions in curbing the so-called ‘freebies’. States have now intervened in the matter and have pushed back strongly against what they see as attempts to curtail their constitutional powers.

There is no legal or constitutional definition of what constitutes a freebie’. Even the term ‘freebie’ carries within it a value judgement -- that somehow what is given “free” is undeserved and a waste of someone else’s resources. While this term is used to describe the food, the fans or the mixies poor people get, it is never used to describe the tax deductions, exemptions, and waivers the rich enjoy.

Most people wouldn’t deny that the Indian State, as a welfare State, is bound to take care of the needs of the citizens, but what such needs are, how they ought to be met, and who should pay for them are difficult questions of politics and economics. No outside agency, not the Election Commission, not the RBI nor the Supreme Court can dictate to a legislature how it ought to pass laws and spend tax money. The only people who can do that are the voters.

When MGR stood up in that meeting with Manmohan Singh, he was not just standing up for himself or for Tamil Nadu. He stood up for the electorate’s right to choose their politicians and the elected politicians’ power to choose how to respond to the demands of the electorate. He stood up for the federal principle that states are supreme in the areas allotted to them by the Constitution.

Ten years after this meeting, the Union government saw the wisdom in MGR’s policy and rolled out a nation-wide mid-day meal programme for schoolchildren. In 2013, one of the last acts of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government was to enshrine the mid-day meal scheme in the National Food Security Act.

Manmohan Singh was beyond doubt the most accomplished academic to have served as India’s PM, but he did well to remember that day in 1985 when MGR schooled him in politics and the Constitution.

(The author is a co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and uses his legal training to make the case that Harry Potter is science fiction and Star Wars is fantasy)