It has been a month since the bogey of demonetisation was unleashed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The aim for this measure was laudable considering it would be a major step in the fight against black money and corruption along with incidental gains against counterfeiting and funding of terrorism. The narrative has changed now considering the massive problems caused by the faulty and improper implementation of the measure which has led to massive cash shortages that has like a virus spread across the country and all sectors of the economy and slowed everything down.
In terms of the original objectives of hitting black money, it has possibly touched the tip of the iceberg while corruption continues to flourish unabated as signified by the seizures of new currency in recent raids. As far as counterfeiting the operators will need more time to replicate the new notes but then we have had our own brethren cheat their not so smart compatriots by exchanging the demonetised notes with photocopies of the new Rs 2000 note! Terrorism funding has been impacted somewhat but even there some of the terrorists caught in Kashmir were found in possession of the new Rs 2000 note. The new tack that Modi is taking on these problems is that these are the first baby steps we are taking towards a cashless economy!
With the majority of the demonetised notes coming back to the banking system with more to come until the last date of Dec 30, it has shown that Indian households still prefer to hold a cash cache at home for contingencies or whatever and thus the salivation of our I-T authorities that they could tax this money may not come true since a majority of this would be tax-paid money.
Modi and his government continues to be in denial that the demonetisation exercise has turned into a fiasco to show their disconnect with the people. Modi on his part has shown some irresponsibility by not addressing Parliament and taking them into confidence on the bold measure of demonetisation that he was proud of. Instead of that he has gone to the people with an App that has a loaded questionnaire which supports the demonetisation measure. There is nothing wrong in going directly to the people in a referendum mode but then have an independent body like the Election Commission do it, which will clearly tell Modi no one likes the manner in which it was done. In the absence of this Modi continues to remain in denial mode clutching at straws like a drowning man desperate to save himself.
This has been evident in the knee-jerk reactions to combat issue after issue as each sector of India gets hit by the cash shortage. These off-the-cuff responses have a cost to them like exempting toll taxes, parking fees, fees for credit card usage at other bank ATM’s and the rush to install POS terminals across the country. A measure of statesmanship is what Modi should rise up at this juncture and apologise to the people of India about his blunder. Everyone is liable to make an error in judgment and Modi after all being human is no exception. The people of India will then still forgive him otherwise it would have major repercussions for him and the BJP in the upcoming elections in the States leading up to the General Elections in 2019.
