India is indeed going through a very serious and deep financial crisis, is facing a sharp and unprecedented economic downturn and witnessing severe loss in business confidence. With this scenario evident even before the elections, the encore for BJP was unexpected. Yet, their position in Parliament improved, possibly due to other factors, wilfully created to ensure a victory. However, the confidence and trust of the people in this Government being capable of pulling the country out of this mess has totally eroded. While partly succeeding in engaging and diverting people’s attention to other issues, thereby consciously polluting the communal atmosphere, it has conveniently ignored the increasing levels of dissatisfaction and frustration among the citizens. Economists are unanimous and the Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog, Rajiv Kumar, confirms that this slowdown is the worst in 70 years. Alongwith BJP MP, Subramaniam Swamy, who called demonetisation a “failure” and GST a “nightmare”, Kumar too and many others put the blame for the crisis on these two factors, while our presumptuous rulers continue glorifying and justifying these two decisions.
A Government that came to power on assurances of better governance, big push on economic reforms, improvement of growth and increasing jobs substantially has not only put the economy into chaos, but contributed to heavy loss of jobs, unemployment to touch the highest in 45 years, growth in GDP to drop substantially, consumer price index to rise 7.35%, hitting the highest since 2014 crossing the threshold limit set by RBI, private sector investment to be at a 15 year low, resulting in almost no investment in private sector, an unbearable price rise of essential commodities, vegetables and cereals, a substantial increase in prices of cooking gas, petrol and diesel, artificial scarcity of wheat, despite record production, consequent upon procurement of large quantities but failure to distribute them through PDS. The list could go on. Yet, the brazen arrogance of our rulers will see no let up and the vitriol against their critics will have no end.
The closeness of the Central Government to the big industrialists, some of who are responsible for the collapse of Yes Bank, was evident when PM Modi in a reassuring message to corporates from the ramparts of the Red Fort said: “Wealth creators must not be viewed with suspicion as they serve the nation and deserve respect and encouragement”. They are the “country’s wealth”. “Respect for them should increase for, if wealth is not created, it will not be distributed and the poor in the country will not benefit.”
Commenting on the last Budget, a critic averred that it showed the people that the Modi Govt. does not care for them and is willing to sacrifice them for the benefit of the corporate sections. He was referring to the cut in corporate tax in August last, which resulted in revenue loss of Rs 1,56 lakh crore and that to hide this loss, the Centre refused to pay the States their share of revenues, as statutorily mandated. He charged the Government of “neglect, mismanagement and perversion of priorities, which created a slump in Indian economy leading to a massive dip in Government revenue”, adding that it “reveals how a rich man’s sarkar goes about brutally increasing the burden on people in order to continue handing out concessions to the corporate world”. He further said that the Food subsidy, which ensures that foodgrain reaches people at affordable prices, was cut by over Rs 75,532 crore, spending on health by Rs 1,169 crore and on agriculture and allied sectors (like fisheries)by Rs 30,683 crore.
Aggravating the economic problems faced by the country, comes the failure of some Cooperative Banks, including a few in Goa, and the fifth largest private Bank – the Yes Bank. There has been justified criticism of the regulatory body’s role, the RBI, in being a silent spectator to the happenings in Yes Bank. Besides P Chidambaran, and Bank Unions, a leader of RSS slammed RBI for remaining mum despite receiving weekly and monthly reports and knowing of Yes Bank’s undervaluation of their NPAs.
But the RBI’s attitude may not surprise many. We are aware that all over Goa, there are authorized and unauthorized money changers, who exchange foreign currencies without the mandatory identification and regulatory charges like GST. Those who followed the RBI and Government directives have suffered the brunt of these irregularities and have had to quit business – a price often paid for being honest or should I repeat what I have been saying that there is no place for honest and upright people in this country?. Understandably, not many are prepared to go through the hassles of providing documentation and losing money when charges can be avoided with impunity. I recall that over two decades back when I was in the Bank, the RBI, through a Circular issued unfairly, directed that interest on Non-Repatriable Deposits had to mandatorily be credited to Non-Resident Ordinary account. Except for very few Banks, including mine, most ignored the instructions and the former lost substantial deposits to the latter. With customers fuming over such unjust directives, we referred the matter to RBI in writing giving concrete instances of non compliance by some Banks. With RBI ignoring written complaints, my superior called up RBI in Panjim to express his unhappiness at RBI’s inaction. Not only was no action taken but he was made to shut up and told that he was “exceeding his brief”. So much for being compliant with RBI directives and their so-called monitoring of Banks…
(The author is a
retired Banker)
