The Political Economy of Populist Programmes

Populist programmes have been launched in the country both by the central and state governments. They have been introduced as redistributive strategies or for gaining political popularity, particularly during times of elections, or for meeting the provisions for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution. While some of the programmes like providing foodgrains at subsidised prices to the poor have served the redistributive strategies, others like the waiver of agricultural loans have been a total disaster.