India, Oct. 8 -- The bugle for the assembly elections in Bihar was blown by the Election Commission. The attention will shift to campaign themes, stars, rhetoric, abuses, rallies, and roadshows. Most experts will not have the time to analyse a ticking financial time-bomb that has become a feature of most state assembly elections. This is the increasing tendency of the political parties to offer cash-related benefits and doles to lure voters.

This populist profligacy will inevitably bankrupt a few state governments, as it has several others in the past, if better sense does not prevail among the ruling regimes in the former. Look at Bihar. Before the elections were announced, the ruling NDA government in Bihar transferred Rs10,000 each in...