Governments should spend taxpayers’ money to provide facilities to people, not to benefit friends: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday said governments should spend taxpayers’ money to provide facilities to people, not to benefit political leaders, their family members and friends.

Providing electricity, water, schools and other facilities to people is the “core responsibility” of any government, the party said on the Election Commission’s (EC) proposal to amend the Model Code of Conduct to ask political parties to provide authentic information to the voters on the financial viability of their poll promises.

The poll panel’s proposal comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi derided the “revadi” culture, a reference to freebies offered by political parties, triggering a war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AAP.

The issue of freebies is now being debated in the Supreme Court.

“The AAP will submit its view (before the poll panel),” its national spokesperson Atishi Marlena told reporters when asked about the party’s view on the EC’s proposal.

However, the AAP “firmly” believes that public money should be spent on the public, she said.

The AAP leader said people pay tax so that governments can provide them facilities such as electricity, water, schools, hospitals or public transport.

“This is the core responsibility of the governments,” she said.

“People do not pay tax so that leaders can fill their pockets, deposit it in Swiss banks for their next seven generations and use it to make their friends the richest people in the world,” she said, without naming any political party.