Editorials: 22-July-2025

 

The Hindu Editorials

​​​Cost of promises: On the Bihar election and poll-eve welfare measures

Election-eve welfare measures display a lack of respect for voters

It is raining welfare in Bihar. Nothing surprising: the stakes are high for the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the approaching Assembly elections. According to recent announcements, household consumption of up to 125 units of electricity per month will be free, with effect from August 1 this year. This scheme will cover around 1.67 crore households. Under the Kutir Jyoti Yojana, the government will provide free rooftop solar installations for about 58 lakh Below Poverty Line families. The welfare hamper (1) of the ruling coalition also includes a promise of 35% job reservation in all State government jobs for women, an increase in social security pension from ₹400 to ₹1,100, the creation of a Bihar Youth Commission, and more. A new internship support scheme offers between ₹4,000 and ₹6,000 a month to youth (18 to 28 years) for undertaking internships, and based on their educational qualifications. The plan is to start supporting 5,000 youth in the first year and scaling it up to cover one lakh beneficiaries over the next five years. To promote religious tourism, the State has announced a ₹882.87 crore redevelopment plan for Punaura Dham Janki Mandir, said to be the birthplace of Lord Rama’s wife Sita. Migrants from the State who live outside will receive government support to return home during festivals.

All this follows a familiar pattern of governments using welfare as an instrument of election-eve (2) management of popular sentiment. The absence of any serious planning or vision behind such sporadic (3) announcements is evident. They are often in response to the promises of a political rival. In Bihar, the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal has said that the Nitish Kumar government’s welfare catalogue (4) is a forced reaction to its promises of similar measures if voted to power. Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Mahayuti government rolled out a cash transfer scheme for women which helped it win. Later, the new government pruned (5) the list, admitting that there were undeserving beneficiaries. Free electricity schemes now exist in several States. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often questioned the rationale (6) of ‘freebies’, but arbitrary new schemes continue to proliferate (7). In Bihar, the scramble (8) among parties is also in the context of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s advancing age. His party, the Janata Dal (United), is smaller than the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the election could further alter the dynamics (9) of State coalition politics. The control of power had increasingly shifted from Mr. Kumar to the BJP in the last five years and the future of the JD(U) is set to decline. Competitive welfarism (10) is all that remains in the toolkits of all parties to woo voters.

Unvarnished facts: On the Ahmedabad air crash, AAIB investigation

The full and raw cockpit voice recorder transcript must be released

The pushback by pilot bodies and the agencies that are investigating the Ahmedabad air crash, to the damaging leaks by sections of the media could well turn out to be a tepid (1) attempt to staunch (2) the flow. While these leaks have been dismissed as “selective, unverified, irresponsible and baseless reporting” and triggered legal responses, they have, in a way, set a narrative (3) going. There is no fathoming (4) of what more the cockpit voice recorder could contain — especially relating to the troubling possibility of ‘human intervention’ in the crash of Air India flight AI171 on June 12. In this the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has to turn the spotlight on itself for its presentation of the key findings in its preliminary report. Its sparse (5) detailing of an unusual “transitioning” of the two separate fuel control switches, from “run to cutoff’ and back, a standalone snatch of conversation, reflecting unease and denial, between the crew in the unfolding disaster — that has been left open to endless interpretation — and, finally, a near blanket signing-off of no recommended actions concerning the aircraft type, the engine, and the manufacturers, only point to one direction — of the need for the release of a full and raw cockpit voice recorder transcript.

In a legal analysis, if credible evidence of ‘human intervention’ does emerge, the investigation could shift, with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 13 inquiry, that is focused on safety, moving alongside a parallel criminal probe under domestic law. It must be noted that in 2015, following the Germanwings flight 9525 accident — a case of definite ‘human intervention’ — the Government of India was mulling (6) “mid-term” psychometric (7) tests. Then Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had said that psychometric tests should be carried out on pilots in India from time to time. He added that the Ministry would hold consultations with the regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, to facilitate the preparation of fresh rules keeping in mind the crash of the German plane. A senior counsellor at the Kolkata-based Indian Institute of Psychometry (founded in 1978) had also favoured having a repeat of psychometric tests “if a person, especially a pilot or cabin crew, was undergoing mental stress or had had a tragedy on the personal front”. On July 17, in a letter of appeal, the AAIB had said that it would publish updates, as and when required, which would have content of technical and public interest. While it is understood that an air accident investigation would be meticulous (8), at the same time, the hope is that the AAIB clears the fog (9) in the AI171 accident and presents the unvarnished (10) facts — as promised in Parliament on Monday.

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