Year 2016 has gone past, It was an eventful year in an Indian context. Some of the prominent events that took place in 2016 are the demonetization of high-value currency notes by the Central Government, surgical strikes on terror camps, end of the Raghuram Rajan era as RBI governor, BJP winning Assam and making inroads in Kerala and West Bengal, the demise of AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha, Congress being decimated in almost every election that took place, mainstream media’s unsuccessful attempts in making heroes out of Kanhaiya Kumar and Hardik Patel, resignation of Arnab Goswami from Times Now, battle lines between the Bhakts (read nationalists) and the liberal pseudo secular anti-nationals being further intensified among others.
What action can we expect in the year 2017, when the Modi government would complete 3 years?
This government has shown a lot of intent in bringing progress to the nation and has shown the willingness to take risks, which no other government in the past has shown. A nationalist’s wish list for the country would comprise the below points.
1) More crackdown on corruption – The demonetization drive is hopefully just the start of the battle against corruption. Action against benaami property (property purchased in the name of others, at times a fictitious person), crackdown on gold and bringing things in order in the real estate sector are some actions that one can hope for. 2016 saw a lot of bank officials and bureaucrats getting caught for illegal activities. We hope that in 2017, some of big fishes (Mayawati, Gali Janardhan Reddy to name a couple of them) also are convicted and sent to jail. We have also seen the home ministry cracking down on a number of NGOs which have got foreign funding under the FCRA. Despite the criticism, the government must continue with this clean-up.
2) GST coming into effect – The Goods and Service Tax, that has seen many delays, is finally expected to come into effect in 2017. This should streamline the indirect taxation in the country and has the potential to increase the GDP substantially. As things stand today, it looks unlikely that the new tax regime would come into effect from April 2017, but it should happen on or before September 2017.
3) Further improvement in the economic parameters – Now that inflation is under control, we hope that the Finance minister increases the amount allocated to public expenditure, notably on infrastructure. We also hope the RBI further reduces the repo rate to propel growth and to enable banks to pass on the rate cut to the consumer. A GDP growth of 8% or thereabouts can be hoped for. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was not very encouraging during most of the time in 2016 despite the Make in India initiative of the government because of various factors. We hope that there is a revival in 2017.
4) Relief to the tax payers and incentives for going digital – The Modi government has hinted on making major changes in the IT slabs and the tax rates to make it more competitive and to discourage tax evasion. Currently, the percentage of people paying income taxes honestly and filing IT returns in very less. The government is expected to make the process tighter and bring more people into the tax bracket. People indulging in evasion must be strictly punished. Also, tax exemptions under various sections can be given a relook. With the demonetization drive, the government is aiming for a less-cash economy. The government must look at giving more incentives to citizens who transact digitally.
5) More surgical strikes and zero tolerance towards terror – Despite the fact that the Modi government has shown will in fighting terror by way of surgical strike, the fact remains that there have been many ceasefire violations in 2016. The government must initiate more surgical strikes and break the backbone of terror activities. The terror convicts like Yasin Bhatkal must not be spared and death penalty must be given to them at the earliest.
6) Favorable results in the state assembly elections – Elections are to be held in UP, Punjab, Gujarat, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. We hope that the leftist anti-Hindu pseudo secular parties bite the dust and are completely decimated.
7) Sonia and Rahul Gandhi convicted in National Herald and Agusta Westland case – Subramanian Swamy had promised some fireworks in the National Herald case in 2016, but unfortunately not much headway has been made. We hope that Swamy pursues with this case and the scam queen and the crown prince are sent to jail. The AgustaWestland chopper scam is another scam where the first family is implicated and we hope to see the two in jail.
8) Arnab Goswami continues his battle against the pseudo liberal journalists – Newshour is just not the same without Arnab Goswami. He is now all set to start his new venture ‘Republic’. We hope that he continues his unrelenting fight against the pseudo liberal ‘Pro Pakistani doves’, as he calls them.
9) Headway on implementing a Uniform Civil Code – Not having a Uniform Civil Code and having personal law boards is one of the biggest and seemingly irreparable damage done by the Congress party to this country. In 2016, the Modi government did mention its intention of implementing a Uniform Civil Code, but as expected, the opposition parties opposed this move strongly. As we have seen, Modi is capable of springing surprises and we hope this government seriously contemplates on this topic.
10) More thrust to the PM’s pet schemes – We hope that the PM’s pet schemes like Make in India, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Digital India, Start-up India are given more thrust in 2017 and in general, the country makes good progress on all fronts.
