Cashing in on schemes for poor

In getting its ministers to endorse the shift to cash transfers from the AICC office in New Delhi, the Congress has highlighted the political nature of the move. The party clearly expects cash transfers to play the same role for it in 2014 that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act did in 2009. By pouring money directly into the bank accounts of voters across the country, it expects to be paid back with additional seats in the Lok Sabha. But the politics of cash transfers is not the same as that of the MGNREGA. And even if there is political gain for the Congress from this move, it will come at a great social cost.

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