Targeting poll speeches to deal freebies, fiscal deficit amounts to wild-goose chase: AAP to SC

New Delhi: Targeting and regulating electoral speeches will amount to nothing more than a wild-goose chase if the concerns are over fiscal deficit due to the promises of freebies made during polls by political parties, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The top court, which is mulling setting up an expert panel to brainstorm the issue of freebies announced during elections, was told by the AAP that the curb on electoral speeches, without legislative backing, would be violative of the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression and the proposed committee may not encompass the regulation, let alone prohibition, of certain types of electoral speech.

Such a restriction or prohibition, executively or judicially imposed, would amount to a curtailment of the freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) without the backing of legislative sanction, the party has said in its additional submissions.

Further, if concerns over fiscal deficit and responsibility are indeed the point of the present proceedings (in the PIL), targeting and regulating electoral speech will amount to nothing more than a wild-goose chase, it said.

The AAP said the electoral promises while serving an important democratic function, are completely inappropriate proxies for regulating actual fiscal outgo.

Trying to address issues of fiscal deficit by attacking electoral speech will both hurt the democratic quality of elections by prohibiting parties from communicating their ideological stances on welfare, while also making no progress in achieving fiscal responsibility,

it said.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, which has sought suggestions from all the stakeholders on the issue of setting up the panel to discuss and suggest measures on irrational freebies, is scheduled to hear the PIL on Wednesday.

The top court was hearing a PIL filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, which opposes the practice of political parties promising freebies during elections and seeks the Election Commission to invoke its powers to freeze their election symbols and cancel their registration.