Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that decisions like demonetisation were taken without fear or hesitation, asserting that his government is not afraid of taking “big and tough” decisions in the interest of the country. On the notes ban, he said the step was taken to check black money and that it had helped identify lakhs of people who had crores of rupees in bank accounts but never paid income tax. The PM’s comments come in the middle of condemnation from economists, analysts and the opposition over the government’s key decisions. Recently, the criticism peaked after the Reserve Bank of India said in its annual report that most of the estimated Rs 15.4 lakh crore in banned notes had been returned.
Our dear Prime Minister always issues comments in foreign countries for problems faced by Indians due to wrong decisions taken by him. He should remain present more in India to listen, look and solve the problems. Of course, taking big decisions without fear, hesitation and preparation is his forte. He never cared about the repercussions, always ill informed, too emotional and overall not that educated or balanced to run a country. His intentions might be precise but he failed in implementation. Wonder how long it will take him to distinguish that his decisions are damaging the country and its people who are not rich or prosperous. Modi is surrounded by all headless greedy ministers, who are not to inform or update him the real scenario of country unless some casualty happens. He also said that registration of over two lakh companies had been cancelled in the last three months after they were found indulging in money-laundering activities, but he also failed to realise that the jobs of thousands have been snatched, many youth are jobless and government has failed to create job opportunities for the youth. It is very easy to shut or open any company, many get employment here, unless there is no alternative occupations offered to the employees, ruthlessly shutting companies in the name of anything to everything is just not done. Government is yet to provide the names of those companies which were closed due to money laundering issues.
To deal with corruption, he banned currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination. But by introducing larger notes he made it even easier for the corrupt people. He talked about the pledge to rid the country of problems like terrorism, communalism and corruption. But since 2014 neither corruption is reduced nor the terror attacks. I am not questioning his motives or decisions! Democracy is plural and assorted, before taking any decision there has to be discussion and extensive dialogue, research and people’s faith. Otherwise, decision-maker can be proven as dictator and fascist, which is what we’re objecting to. We all want our nation to be a super power and corruption free, but the fact is that no politician or MLA, MP is yet to be investigated or punished. All of them have amassed properties and all of them indulge in money laundering activities that is what makes them win the election.
One more irritating factor is that, he is always implying that everyone else, who doesn’t support the party in power as unpatriotic or should be branded as anti-national and corrupt. He means to say that the other political ideologies are anti-national. You cannot criticise, PM, party or his way of politics. Many voices are shunted down for taking against establishment and extremism. This is the democracy that we have narrowed to. Decisions without dialogue and discussion can go wrong and haywire. Who’s responsible for these decisions, which can put a billion people and our country’s economy at risk? Is the PM accountable to the Parliament or not? Many a time, decisions are made bypassing the legislative, which is wrong. When BJP was in opposition, which ever issues they opposed strongly such as demonetisation, GST, Aadhar Card etc. today it has become survival factor for them after coming to power. No new scheme has been introduced by BJP, they just renamed all old policies and schemes introduced by UPA and now taking credit. Why no discussion happens, when violence is unleashed against the weaker sections in the name of vigilantism or prominent persons and activists whose ideology is diagonally opposite of the ruling party? Why so much insecurity and hate? PM acts like leader of a section and community, but never led it as leader of a nation.
With all these dichotomies and contrasts, many of us in the society tend to feel, if all the diverse sections of the nation and society are safe or not. Are the voices of opposing opinions and ideologies being silenced either by maiming or eliminating? Somehow, discussion of only selected topics in a direction which is advantageous to the ruling party doesn’t give us confidence that the government has everyone’s interest at heart. He was in India but didn’t think it was important to address the parliament, the people, the media, but he speaks to the Indian diaspora in Yangon? Such a weakling and he says he has no fear.
Either Modi completely lacks logic or simply has no idea what he’s doing in the field of economy. Of course, having Arun Jaitley as Finance minister is double whammy. Now Modi should be afraid to face the people in India…not Indian diaspora who are hardly connected to India. They are pretty much settled in their chosen lands. It is Indian citizen who trusted your promises and elected you as their PM with great hope, come open to them.
Definitely there was an advantage in the note ban. It curtailed black money, particularly in the real estate sector, but we are getting back to old scenario with the increase in circulation of new notes. Government must do this exercise every two or three years so that currency is not hoarded and counterfeit is not developed. Public will definitely cooperate, having seen the advantage, despite some inconvenience they had to undergo for a month or so. But the point is that the demonetisation was not in national interest. What do you say to the families who lost their loved ones and what do you say to the people who have suffered. Still in denial mode?
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