Its a dangerous trend that PM modi has set in. Though he must be applauded for his bold steps towards reforms in governance and fight against corruption, but with a bit of care.
His move to de- monetise high value currency is a bold and quite needed step, but the timing and method is questionable. Here are few questions that still remain in my mind unanswered.
1. Timing: This time of the year is well known for festivals, marriages and tourism. Yet, it was chosen as appropriate time to detonate this bomb which resulted in several deaths in family which were preparing for marriage celebrations, pushed foreign tourists into utter chaos and forget about festivities, it created dearth of sufficient food and livelihood. Its well accepted that these are short term issues, and because of this understanding, i fail to digest and interpret why this period of year was chosen by the intellectuals who could contemplated the problems that people might face quite fairly, but not these big issues. This timing makes sense if i attach political motives of BJP to this move of National good!
Uttar Pradesh and punjab elections are around the corner.
2. Will this really curb black money in long run? This move will certainly squash the black money, to some extent, in circulation at present moment but does not guarantee anyway that new black money hoarding will not take place in future. Instead it will be doubly easier for new hoarding with new double denomination currency notes.
3. BJP fundings: there were allegations regarding the huge sums of money that BJP spent in its election campaign in 2014. And most of it was funded by big corporate families. I do not and cannot buy the argument that BJP did not take ‘preventive’ measure in its favour prior to this announcement. Black money forms a major part of all political parties funding. In present time, its not practically possible for a party, especially national parties like BJP and Congress to contest elections with 100% legal funding. If it is so committed against black money, why did BJP government went against bringing Political Parties funding under RTI? Charity should have begun at home!
Targeting small hoarders will not serve the purpose. Its the big corporate houses and industries and MNCs who are involved in corruption in form of under voicing and round tripping. Catching a few of those big names would have served the purpose far better. Bureaucrats and politicians are not going to be the sufferers, they had avenues to generate black money and also to convert into white through NGOs, donations and what not. Its just small hoarders who are being targeted. The concept of Common but Differentiated Responsibility should have been fully Incorporates here
There is another link to this, media gagging. Slapping a day ban on NDTV India after 9 months of incidence and then holding the order was just a method to warn media houses about the consequences they may face in case of non compliance of its circulars and instructions, like the one, i suppose, is been sent to them instructing not to oppose the move under any circumstance and downplay any other person or party doing the same. One can easily recognize this. Media which has a habbit to promote most minor criticism of government action, seems united and singing in same tone of “temporary suffering and sacrifice for greater good” . Even in the debate shows, the anchors are not allowing the criticisms to have enough focus.
Was is not possible to raid a few thousand of bureaucrats in the country simultaneously in a ‘surgical strike’ or a few hundreds of politicians to achieve similar objectives??
That danger that i talked about in the beginning was about WRAPPING VESTED INTEREST IN THE CLOTH OF NATIONAL SERVICE. UP being the most significant state in the Union which can even clear the roadblock that Government faces in Rajya Sabha, is the real target.
It would not be wrong to call this move as “Coloured Anti Corruption Drive”
The First Opinion 