On 9th November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced one of the biggest ever steps taken by the NDA government in fighting corruption and black money during his address to the nation. In a span of 4 hours, Rs 500 and 1000 notes were demonetized, thereby withdrawing their status as legal tender. This move by the government was nothing less than a master stroke. Loads of black money parked in the houses of real estate tycoons and babus were rendered useless with this one move. This was a well planned strategy and the government has tried everything possible to minimize the inconvenience caused to the common man. The PM did accept that there would be short-term teething problems, but in the long term, the nation would be benefited.
Any constructive opposition would laud this bold move by the government. But in India, the opposition parties are anything but constructive.
The Congress and the other secular liberal opposition parties are yet to accept their monumental defeat in the 2014 General Elections and have since then tried every dirty trick to malign the government. The same holds true with a large left-aligned section of the mainstream media, who have felt a sense of insecurity since the day this government came to power. But this move by the government is a sincere attempt to curb corruption. The opposition parties now had to think of a way to put forth the message that while they are against corruption, they are in disagreement with the means used by the government.
As per Rahul Gandhi, the real culprits are sitting tight, while the lives of farmers, small shopkeepers and housewives have been thrown into utter chaos. Firstly, the soon to be president of a party involved in multi-crore scams like 2G, Coalgate, Augusta Westland and many more does not have the moral right to even talk on this subject. Second, whatever concerns he has raised are non-issues. The government has clearly mentioned that the old notes can be exchanged for the new ones in any bank by just showing an ID proof and also money can be deposited in the bank accounts. Moreover, the farmers and the small shopkeepers would not have loads of unaccounted cash and they should not be impacted in any way.
Mamata Bannerjee was one of the first politicians to express her disagreement with this move. As per her, this is a DRACONIAN move. For people whose accounts are not clean, for the ones involved in mega scams like the Saradha scam or for Islamic terrorist sympathizers and champions of illegal immigration, this is indeed a draconian move. If Mamata has nothing to hide and she is all for fighting the menace of black money as she claims, I wonder why she is getting so worked up about this. It is clear that all her sympathy towards the farmers and people from low income group is a forced one and she is clearly worried about her own ill-acquired wealth.
As expected, the left parties have taken strong opposition to this move by the government. As per Comrade Sitaram Yechury, only 0.025% of the currencies are fake and hence, he questions the intentions and sincerity of the government. This is the best that Yechury could come up with. Of course, you cannot expect anything better from impractical Communists, who have eternally spoken and acted against national interests, right from the 1962 China war to supporting unruly elements shouting ‘Bharat ki barbaadi hogi, inshallah inshallah’. It is a fact that fake currencies are being supplied from across the border by ISI to sponsor terror activities in India. This is an issue with national security and the least one can expect from the opposition parties is to not play partisan politics in this regard and co-operate with the government. Moreover, what does Yechury have to say about black money hidden by the crores inside the country?
Mayawati, the champion of Dalits has some very strong words on this topic. As per her, the Modi government has imposed economic emergency in the country and she questions why the government has taken two and a half years to implement this. During the ten years of UPA misrule, not once did she question the Congress and all of a sudden, two and a half years is a very long period. What she fails to realize is that this decision has not been taken out of the blue and a lot of planning has gone into it, starting with the Jan Dhan yojna, linking of Aadhar cards for DBT, Income declaration scheme and so on.
Also, if there are elections round the corner and if there is no black money for party expenses, it is indeed an economic emergency.
Let’s now come to the biggest scamster politician in the country. Yes, this is about His Honesty Arvind Kejriwal. For a person who started out as an anti-corruption crusader, this was indeed a tricky situation. On one hand, he could not immediately go against this scheme by the government and on the other hand, credit for this bold move cannot be given to the Modi government at any cost. So, he decided to bring the Punjab elections into picture by claiming that BJP has already made arrangements by stocking 100 rupee notes. He also goes on to state that the ‘friends’ of the BJP have been fore-warned about this and they are well-prepared for this entire exercise. Kejriwal has an age-old habit of making allegations without any proof and then buckling down when taken to court. If Kejriwal has any proof on this, he must produce it, else, for all his claims about being an anti-corruption crusader, he must support the government for this courageous step, that would go a long way to reduce corruption in the country.
To conclude, for politicians, corrupt government servants and real estate tycoons who have stashed bundles of black money at various hidden places, there is big reason for worry. It is but natural that they are cursing this government. But the honest average common man in this country is very happy with the step taken by the government. This would eventually lead to a huge increase in electronic transactions in the country and this step has the potential to reduce the menace of black money. Yes, there would be teething problems for a few days, but in the long term, this is a welcome step and PM Modi & his team must be lauded and congratulated for this. The honest Indian citizen is firmly with the PM in this much needed battle against corruption.